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And 

The  Kaiser 

Abdicates 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  YALE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

IN  MEMORY  OF 

LIEUTENANT  EARL  TRUMBULL  WILLIAMS 

301st  UNITED  STATES  FIELD  ARTILLERY 
OF  THE  CLASS  OF  1910  YALE  COLLEGE 

WHO  DIED  MAY  /th  1918 


AND  THE  KAISER 
ABDICATES 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  DEATH  OF  THE 

GERMAN  EMPIRE  AND  THE  BIRTH  OF 

THE  REPUBLIC  TOLD  BY  AN  EYE-WITNESS 

S.  MILES  BOUTON 


NEW  HAVEN 
YALE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

LONDON  :  HUMPHREY 

MILFORD  :  OXFORD 

UNIVERSITY 

PRESS 

MDCCCCXX 


-^ 


(^ 


COPYRIGHT  1920  BY 
YALE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

First  published  October  igzo 


TO  THE 
HONORABLE  IRA  NELSON  MORRIS 

AMERICAN  MINISTER  TO  SWEDEN 

THE  MAN,  THE  DIPLOMAT,  AND  THE  LOYAL 

FRIEND,  THIS  BOOK  IS  AFFECTIONATELY 

DEDICATED  BY  THE  AUTHOR 


435711 


Contents. 

Chapter  I.  The  Governmental  Structure  of  Germany.         1 7 

Revolutions — Not  unknown  in  Germany — Prussia  and  the  Hohenzollerns 
— Frederick  the  Great — Germany  under  foreign  domination — The  Battle 
of  the  Nation — Democratic  awakening  as  a  result  of  liberation — Ger- 
many's political  backwardness — The  war  of  1870-71 — Erection  of  the 
German  Empire — Why  the  Reichstag  failed  to  become  a  real  parliament — 
The  Emperor's  powers  as  Kaiser  and  as  King  of  Prussia. 

Chapter  II.  The  German  Conception  of  the  State.  31 

Individualism  repressed  for  efficiency's  sake — Authority  the  keynote — 
The  Beamier  and  his  special  privileges — Prus'sian  ideals  of  duty — Edu- 
cation— The  Officer  corps  as  supporters  of  the  throne — Militarism — 
Dreams  of  a  W elt-I mperium — The  fatal  cancer  of  Socialism. 

Chapter  III.  Internationalism  and  Vaterlandslose  Ge- 

sellen.  45 

The  menace  of  internationalism — Marx  and  Engels — Socialist  teachings 
of  the  brotherhood  of  man — Lassalle's  national  Socialists  join  the  Inter- 
nationale of  Marx,  Engels  and  Liebknecht — Socialism  becomes  a  political 
factor — Bismarck's  special  laws  fail — He  tries  State  Socialism — Kaiser 
Wilhelm  denounces  the  Socialists — Labor-union  movement  a  child  of 
Socialism — German  "particularism" — Socialism  weakens  feelings  of 
patriotism  and  undermines  the  church. 

Chapter  IV.  Germany  under  the  "Hunger-Blockade."        61 

Germany's  inability  to  feed  and  clothe  her  inhabitants — The  war  reduces 
production — Germany's  imports  in  1913 — Food  conservation — The 
"turnip- winter" — Everybody  goes  hungry — Terrible  increase  of  mortali- 
ty— Discontent  engendered  and  increased  by  suffering — Illegitimate  trade 
in  the  necessaries  of  life — Rations  at  the  front  become  insufficient. 

Chapter  V.  Internationalism  at  Work.  J% 

General  enthusiasm  at  the  war's  outbreak — Socialists  support  the  govern- 
ment— Liebknecht  denounces  the  war — Otto  Riihle,  Franz  Mehring,  Clara 
Zetkin  and  Rosa  Luxemburg — The  "Spartacus  Letters" — Extreme  So- 
cialists begin  to  follow  Liebknecht — The  first  open  break  in  the  party — 
The  seceders  attack  the  war — Liebknecht  sent  to  prison — The  Russian 
Revolution' as  a  factor — The  political  strikes  of  January,  1918 — The  army 
disaffected — Shortage  of  trained  officers. 


•     •  • 


/'M  :•';  **'k-ND*tf^'*kAlSER  ABDICATES 
Chapter  VI.  Propaganda  and  Morale.  89 

Submarine  losses  shake  sailors'  morale — Independent  Socialists'  propa- 
ganda— Admiral  von  Cappelle  admits  serious  mutiny  at  Wilhelmshafen — 
Haase,  Dittmann  and  Vogtherr  denounced — Lenine  passes  through  Ger- 
many— Russian  Bolshevist  propaganda  in  Germany — Treaty  of  Brest- 
Litovsk  throws  down  the  bars — Activities  of  the  Bolshevist  Ambassador 
JoflFe — Haase,  Cohn  and  other  Independent  Socialists  work  with  him — 
Joffe  expelled  from  Germany — Allied  propaganda  helps  weaken  German 
morale  at  home  and  on  the  fronts — Atrocity  stories. 

Chapter  VII.  Germany  Requests  an  Armistice.  107 

Chancellor  Michaelis  resigns  and  is  succeeded  by  Count  Hertling — 
Empire  honeycombed  with  sedition — Count  Lichnowsky's  memoirs — 
Another  Chancellor  crisis — Socialists  consent  to  enter  a  coalition  govern- 
ment— Bulgaria  surrenders — Hertling  admits  desperateness  of  situation — 
The  German  front  begins  to  disintegrate — Prince  Max  of  Baden  becomes 
Chancellor,  with  the  Socialist  Philip  Scheidemann  as  a  cabinet  member — 
Max  requests  an  armistice — Lansing's  reply^ 

Chapter  VIII.  The  Last  Days  of  Imperial  Germany.  1 2 1 

Reforms  come  too  late  — The  Independent  Socialists  attack  the  govern- 
ment— Liebknecht  released  from  prison  and  defies  the  authorities — The 
Kaiser  makes  sweeping  surrenders  of  powers — Austria-Hungary's  de- 
fection— Revolution  in  Vienna — Socialists  demand  the  Kaiser's  abdication 
— The  new  cabinet  promises  parliamentary  reforms. 

Chapter  IX.  A  Revolt  Which  Became  a  Revolution.         133 

Mutiny  at  Kiel — Troops  fire  on  mutinous  sailors — Demands  of  the  muti- 
neers granted — Noske  arrives — The  red  flag  replaces  the  imperial  stand- 
ard— Prince  Henry's  flight — Independent  Socialists  and  Spartacans  seize 
their  opportunity — Soviets  erected  throughout  Northwestern  Germany — 
Oflicial  cowardice  at  Swinemiinde — Noske  becomes  Governor  of  Kiel. 

Chapter  X.  The  Revolution  Reaches  Berlin.  147 

Lansing  announces  that  the  allied  governments  accept  Wilson's  fourteen 
points  with  one  reservation — Max  appeals  to  the  people — Hamburg 
revolutionaries  reach  Berlin — Government  troops  brought  to  the  capital — 
Independent  Socialists  meet  in  the  Reichstag  building — The  revolution 
spreads — Majority  Socialists  join  hands  with  the  revolutionaries — Sup- 
posedly loyal  troops  mutiny — Revolution. 

Chapter  XL  The  Kaiser  Abdicates.  159 

Ebert  becomes  Premier  for  a  day — The  German  Republic  proclaimed — 
Liebknecht  at  the  royal  palace — Officers  hunted  down  in  the  streets — The 
rape  of  the  bourgeois  newspapers  by  revolutionaries — The  first  shooting — 
Ebert  issues  a  proclamation  and  an  appeal — A  red  Sunday — Revolution- 
ary meeting  at  the  Circus  Busch — A  six-man  cabinet  formed — The  Voll- 
zugsrat — Far-reaching  reforms  are  decreed.^ 

10 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 
Chapter  XII.  "The  German  Socialistic  Republic."  177 

The  end  of  the  d3niasties — The  Kaiser  flees — Central  Soviet  displays 
moderate  tendencies — Wholesale  jail-releases — The  police  disarmed — Die 
neue  Freiheit — A  Red  Guard  is  planned,  but  meets  opposition  from  the 
soldiers — Liebknecht  organizes  the  deserters — Armistice  terms  a  blow  to 
the  cabinet — The  blockade  is  extended. 

Chapter  XIII.  'The  New  Freedom."  195 

Germany's  armed  forces  collapse — Some  effects  of  "the  new  freedom" — 
The  Reichstag  is  declared  dissolved — The  cabinet's  helplessness — Op- 
position to  a  national  assembly — Radicals  dominate  the  Vollzugsrat — 
Charges  are  made  against  it — The  Red  Soldiers'  League — The  first 
bloodshed  under  the  new  regime. 

Chapter  XIV.  The  Majority  Socialists  in  Control.  209 

Front  soldiers  return — The  central  congress  of  Germany's  Soviets — 
Radicals  in  an  insignificant  minority — A  new  V ollzugsrat  of  Majority 
Socialists  appointed — The  People's  Marine  Division  revolts — Independent 
Socialists  leave  the  cabinet — The  Spartacus  League  organized — The 
national  government's  authority  flouted — Aggressions  by  Czechs  and 
Poles — An  epidemic  of  strikes. 

Chapter  XV.  Liebknecht  Tries  to  Overthrow  the  Gov- 
ernment; Is  Arrested  and  Killed.  225 

The  first  Bolshevist  uprising — Prominent  Berlin  newspapers  seized  by 
the  Spartacans — The  Independent  Socialists'  double-dealing — Capture  of 
the  Vorwdrts  plant — Ledebour,  Liebknecht  and  Rosa  Luxemburg  ar- 
rested— Liebknecht  and  Luxemburg  killed — The  Bolsheviki  turn  their 
attention  to  coast  cities. 

Chapter  XVI.  The  National  Assembly.  237 

Germany's  political  parties  reorganize — Theodor  Wolff — Composition  of 
the  National  Assembly — Convenes  at  Weimar — Spartacans  stage  various 
uprisings — Friedrich  Ebert  elected  provisional  president  of  the  German 
Republic — Germany's  desperate  financial  situation — The  difference  be- 
tween theory  and  practice. 

Chapter  XVII.  The  Spartacans  Rise  Again.  251 

Germany  still  hungering — Promised  supplies  of  food  delayed — Gas  and 
coal  shortage — Strikes  add  to  people's  sufferings — The  Spartacans  plan 
another  uprising — Severe  fighting  in  Berlin — The  radical  newspaper 
Die  rote  Fahne  suppressed — Independent  Socialists  go  over  to  the 
Spartacans — Independent  Socialist  and  Spartacan  Platforms  contrasted. 

Chapter    XVIII.    Red    or    White    Internationalism: 

Which?  265 

Radicalism  encouraged  by  Bolshevism's  success  in  Hungary— Conclusion. 

11 


Foreword. 

THE  developments  leading  up  to  the  German  Revolu- 
tion of  November,  191 8,  and  the  events  marking  the 
course  of  the  revolution  itself  are  still  but  imper- 
fectly known  or  understood  in  America.  For  nearly  two  years 
preceding  the  overthrow  of  the  monarchy,  Americans,  like 
the  people  of  all  other  countries  opposing  Germany,  were  de- 
pendent for  their  direct  information  upon  the  reports  of 
neutral  correspondents,  and  a  stringent  censorship  prevented 
these  from  reporting  anything  of  value  regarding  the  con- 
ditions that  were  throughout  this  period  gradually  making 
the  German  Empire  ripe  for  its  fall.  To  a  great  extent,  in- 
deed, not  only  these  foreign  journalists,  but  the  great  mass 
of  the  Germans  themselves,  had  little  knowledge  of  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  Empire  was  being  undermined. 

During  the  crucial  days  of  the  revolution,  up  to  the  com- 
plete overthrow  of  the  central  government  at  Berlin,  a  sharp- 
ened censorship  prevented  any  valuable  direct  news  from 
being  sent  out,  and  the  progress  of  events  was  told  to  the  out- 
side world  mainly  by  travelers,  excited  soldiers  on  the  Danish 
frontier  and  two  or  three-day-old  German  newspapers  whose 
editors  were  themselves  not  only  handicapped  by  the  censor- 
ship, but  also  ignorant  of  much  that  had  happened  and  un- 
able to  present  a  clear  picture  of  events  as  a  whole.  When 
the  bars  were  finally  thrown  down  to  enemy  correspondents, 
the  exigencies  of  daily  newspaper  work  required  them  to  de- 
vote their  undivided  attention  to  the  events  that  were  then 
occurring.  Hence  the  developments  preceding  and  attending 
the  revolution  could  not  receive  that  careful  consideration 
and  portrayal  which  is  necessary  if  they  are  to  be  properly 
understood. 

An  attempt  is  made  in  this  book  to  make  clear  the  factors 
and  events  that  made  the  revolution  possible,  and  to  give  a 
broad  outline  of  its  second  phase,  from  the  middle  of  No- 

13 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

vember,  191 8,  to  the  ratification  by  Germany  of  the  Peace 
of  Versailles.  A  preliminary  description  of  Germany's  gov- 
ernmental structure,  although  it  may  contain  nothing  new  to 
readers  who  know  Germany  well,  could  not  be  omitted.  It  is 
requisite  for  a  comprehension  of  the  strength  of  the  forces 
and  events  that  finally  overthrew  the  Kaiser. 

Much  of  the  history  told  deals  with  matters  of  which  the 
author  has  personal  knowledge.  He  had  been  for  several 
years  before  the  war  resident  in  Berlin  as  an  Associated 
Press  correspondent.  He  was  in  Vienna  when  the  Dual  Mon- 
archy declared  war  on  Serbia,  and  in  Berlin  during  mobili- 
zation and  the  declarations  of  war  on  Russia  and  France. 
He  was  with  the  German  armies  on  all  fronts  during  the  first 
two  years  of  the  war  as  correspondent,  and  was  in  Berlin  two 
weeks  before  America  severed  diplomatic  relations  with 
Germany.  The  author  spent  the  summer  of  191 7  in  Russia, 
and  watched  the  progcess  of  affairs  in  Germany  from  Stock- 
holm and  Copenhagen  during  the  winter  of  1917-18.  He 
spent  the  three  months  preceding  the  German  Revolution  in 
Copenhagen,  in  daily  touch  with  many  proved  sources  of 
information,  and  was  the  first  enemy  correspondent  to  enter 
Germany  after  the  armistice,  going  to  Berlin  on  November 
18,  191 8.  He  attended  the  opening  sessions  of  the  National 
Assembly  at  Weimar  in  February,  191 9,  and  remained  in 
Germany  until  the  end  of  March,  witnessing  both  the  first 
and  second  attempts  of  the  Spartacans  to  overthrow  the 
Ebert-Haase  government. 

The  author's  aim  in  writing  this  book  has  been  to  give  a 
truthful  and  adequate  picture  of  the  matters  treated,  without 
any  "tendency"  whatever.  It  is  not  pretended  that  the  book 
exhausts  the  subject.  Many  matters  which  might  be  of  inter- 
est, but  which  would  hinder  the  straightforward  narration 
of  essentials,  have  been  omitted,  but  it  is  believed  that  noth- 
ing essential  to  a  comprehension  of  the  world's  greatest 
political  event  has  been  left  out. 

A  word  in  conclusion  regarding  terminolog^y. 

Proletariat  does  not  mean,  as  is  popularly  supposed  in 
America,  merely  the  lowest  grade  of  manual  laborers.  It  in- 
cludes all  persons  whose  work  is  "exploited"  by  others,  i.  e., 

14 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

who  depend  for  their  existence  upon  wages  or  salaries.  Thus 
actors,  journalists,  clerks,  stenographers,  etc.,  are  reckoned 
as  proletarians. 

The  bourgeoisie  includes  all  persons  who  live  from  the 
income  of  investments  or  from  businesses  or  properties  (in- 
cluding real  estate)  owned  by  them.  In  practice,  however, 
owners  of  small  one-man  or  one-family  businesses,  although 
belonging  to  what  the  French  term  the  petite  bourgeoisie, 
are  regarded  as  proletarians.  The  nobility,  formerly  a  class 
by  itself,  is  now  de  facto  included  under  the  name  bour- 
geoisie, despite  the  contradiction  of  terms  thus  involved. 

No  effort  has  been  made  toward  consistency  in  the  spelling 
of  German  names.  Where  the  German  form  might  not  be 
generally  understood,  the  English  form  has  been  used.  In 
the  main,  however,  the  German  forms  have  been  retained. 

Socialism  and  Social-Democracy,  Socialist  and  Social- 
Democrat,  have  been  used  interchangeably  throughout. 
There  is  no  difference  of  meaning  between  the  words. 

S.  MILES  BOUTON 

Asheville,  New  York, 
November  i,  1919. 


15 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  Governmental  Structure  of 
Germany. 

THE  peoples  of  this  generation — at  least,  those  of 
highly  civilized  and  cultured  communities — had  lit- 
tle or  no  familiarity  with  revolutions  and  the  history 
of  revolutions  before  March,  191 7,  when  Tsar  Nicholas  II 
was  overthrown.  There  was  and  still  is  something  about  the 
very  word  "revolution"  which  is  repugnant  to  all  who  love 
ordered  and  orderly  government.  It  conjures  up  pictures 
of  rude  violence,  of  murder,  pillage  and  wanton  destruction. 
It  violates  the  sentiments  of  those  that  respect  the  law,  for  it 
is  by  its  very  nature  a  negation  of  the  force  of  existing  laws. 
It  breaks  with  traditions  and  is  an  overcoming  of  inertia; 
and  inertia  rules  powerfully  the  majority  of  all  peoples. 

The  average  American  is  comparatively  little  versed  in 
the  history  of  other  countries.  He  knows  that  the  United 
States  of  America  came  into  existence  by  a  revolution,  but 
"revolutionary"  is  for  him  in  this  connection  merely  an  ad- 
jective of  time  used  to  locate  and  describe  a  war  fought  be- 
tween two  powers  toward  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
He  does  not  realize,  or  realizes  but  dimly,  the  essential  kin- 
ship of  all  revolutions.  Nor  does  he  realize  that  most  of  the 
governments  existing  today  came  into  being  as  the  result  of 
revolutions,  some  of  them  bloodless,  it  is  true,  but  all  at  bot- 
tom a  revolt  against  existing  laws  and  governmental  forms. 
The  extortion  of  the  Magna  Charta  from  King  John  in  12 1 5 
Avas  not  the  less  a  revolution  because  it  was  the  bloodless  work 
of  the  English  barons.  It  took  two  bloody  revolutions  to 
establish  France  as  a  republic.  All  the  Balkan  states  are  the 
products  of  revolution.  A  man  need  not  be  old  to  remember 

17 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

the  overthrow  of  the  monarchy  in  Brazil ;  the  revolution  in 
Portugal  was  but  yesterday  as  historians  count  time.  Only 
the  great  wisdom  and  humanitarianism  of  the  aged  King 
Oscar  II  prevented  fighting  and  bloodshed  between  Sweden 
and  Norway  when  Norway  announced  her  intention  of  break- 
ing away  from  the  dual  kingdom.  The  list  could  be  extended 
indefinitely. 

The  failure  to  recall  or  realize  these  things  was  one  of  the 
factors  responsible  for  the  universal  surprise  and  amaze- 
ment when  the  Hohenzollerns  were  overthrown.  The  other 
factor  was  the  general — and  justified — impression  that  the 
government  of  Germany  was  one  of  the  strongest,  most  ably 
administered  and  most  homogeneous  governments  of  the 
world.  And  yet  Germany,  too,  or  what  subsequently  became 
the  nucleus  of  Germany,  had  known  revolution.  It  was  but 
seventy  years  since  the  King  of  Prussia  had  been  forced  to 
stand  bareheaded  in  the  presence  of  the  bodies  of  the  "  March 
patriots,"  who  had  given  their  lives  in  a  revolt  which  re- 
sulted in  a  new  constitution  and  far-reaching  concessions  to 
the  people. 

Even  to  those  who  did  recall  and  realize  these  things, 
however,  the  German  revolution  came  as  a  shock.  The 
closest  observers,  men  who  knew  Germany  intimately, 
doubted  to  the  very  last  the  possibility  of  successful  revolu- 
tion there.  And  yet,  viewed  in  the  light  of  subsequent  hap- 
penings, it  will  be  seen  how  natural,  even  unavoidable,  the 
revolution  was.  It  came  as  the  inevitable  result  of  conditions 
created  by  the  war  and  the  blockade.  It  will  be  the  purpose  of 
this  book  to  make  clear  the  inevitableness  of  the  debacle,  and 
to  explain  the  events  that  followed  it. 

For  a  better  understanding  of  the  whole  subject  a  brief 
explanation  of  the  structure  of  Germany's  governmental 
system  is  in  place.  This  will  serve  the  double  purpose  of 
showing  the  strength  of  the  system  which  the  revolution 
was  able  to  overturn  and  of  dispelling  a  too  general  igno- 
rance regarding  it. 

The  general  condemnation  of  Prussia,  the  Prussians  and 
the  Hohenzollerns  must  not  be  permitted  to  obscure  their 
merits  and  deserts.  For  more  than  five  hundred  years  with- 

18 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

out  a  break  in  the  male  line  this  dynasty  handed  down  its 
inherited  rights  and  produced  an  array  of  great  administra- 
tors who,  within  three  centuries,  raised  Prussia  to  the  rank 
of  a  first-rate  power. 

The  kingdom  that  subsequently  became  the  nucleus  for  the 
German  Empire  lost  fully  half  its  territory  by  the  Peace  of 
Tilsit  in  1 807,  when,  following  the  reverses  in  the  Napole- 
onic wars,  Germany  was  formally  dissolved  and  the  Con- 
federation of  the  Rhine  was  formed  by  Napoleon.  The  stand- 
ing army  was  limited  to  42,000  men,  and  trade  with  Great 
Britain  was  prohibited.  The  Confederation  obeyed  the  letter 
of  the  military  terms,  but  evaded  its  spirit  by  successively 
training  levies  of  42,000  men,  and  within  six  years  enough 
trained  troops  were  available  to  make  a  revolt  against  Na- 
poleonic slavery  possible.  The  French  were  routed  and  cut 
to  pieces  at  the  Battle  of  the  Nations  near  Leipsic  in  181 3, 
and  Prussian  Germany  was  again  launched  on  the  road  to 
greatness. 

A  certain  democratic  awakening  came  on  the  heels  of  the 
people's  liberation  from  foreign  domination.  It  manifested 
itself  particularly  in  the  universities.  The  movement  became 
so  threatening  that  a  conference  of  ministers  of  the  various 
states  was  convoked  in  1819  to  consider  counter-measures. 
The  result  was  an  order  disbanding  the  political  unions  of 
the  universities,  placing  the  universities  under  police  super- 
vision and  imposing  a  censorship  upon  their  activities. 

The  movement  was  checked,  but  not  stopped.  In  1847 
ominous  signs  of  a  popular  revolution  moved  King  Frederick 
William  IV  of  Prussia  to  summon  the  Diet  to  consider  gov- 
ernmental reforms.  The  chief  demand  presented  by  this  Diet 
was  for  a  popular  representation  in  the  government.  The 
King  refused  to  grant  this.  A  striking  commentary  upon  the 
political  backwardness  of  Germany  is  furnished  by  the  fact 
that  one  of  the  demands  made  by  a  popular  convention  held 
in  Mannheim  in  the  following  year  was  for  trial  by  jury,  a 
right  granted  in  England  more  than  six  hundred  years 
earlier  by  the  Magna  Charta.  Other  demands  were  for  the 
freedom  of  the  press  and  popular  representation  in  the  gov- 
ernment. 

19 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

The  revolution  of  1848  in  Prussia,  while  it  failed  to  pro- 
duce all  that  had  been  hoped  for  by  those  responsible  for  it, 
nevertheless  resulted  in  what  were  for  those  times  far-reach- 
ing reforms.  A  diet  was  convoked  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main. 
It  adopted  "a  constitution  establishing  some  decided  demo- 
cratic reforms  and  knit  the  fabric  of  the  German  confedera- 
tion more  closely  together. 

The  structure  of  the  Confederation  was  already  very  sub- 
stantial, despite  much  state  particularism  and  internal  fric- 
tion. An  important  event  in  the  direction  of  a  united  Ger- 
many had  been  the  establishment  in  1833  of  the  Zollverein 
or  Customs  Union.  The  existence  of  scores  of  small  states,^ 
each  with  its  own  tariffs,  currency  and  posts,  had  long  hin- 
dered economic  development.  There  is  a  well-known  anec- 
dote regarding  a  traveler  who,  believing  himself  near  the 
end  of  his  day's  journey,  after  having  passed  a  dozen  cus- 
toms-frontiers, found  his  way  barred  by  the  customs-officials 
of  another  tiny  principality.  Angered  at  the  unexpected  de- 
lay, he  refused  to  submit  to  another  examination  of  his  ef- 
fects and  another  exaction  of  customs-duties. 

"You  aren't  a  country,"  he  said.  "You're  just  a  spot.  I'll 
go  around  you.''  And  this  he  did,  without  being  seriously 
delayed  in  reaching  his  destination. 

The  growing  power  of  Germany  aroused  the  fear  of  the 
French,  who  realized  what  the  union  of  the  vital,  energetic 
and  industrious  German  races  would  mean.  Years  of  tension 
culminated  in  the  war  of  1870-71.  The  result  is  known.  Un- 
prepared for  the  conflict,  the  French  were  crushed,  just  as 
Austria  had  been  crushed  four  years  earlier. 

The  last  external  obstacle  in  the  way  of  German  unity 
and  strength  had  thus  strangely  been  removed.  On  Janu- 
ary 18,  1 87 1,  while  the  victorious  German  armies  still 
stood  at  the  gates  of  Paris,  King  William  I  was  proclaimed 
German  Emperor  as  Kaiser  Wilhelm  I. 

^There  were  more  than  three  hundred  territorial  sovereignties  in  Germany 
when  the  new  constitution  of  the  union  was  adopted  at  the  Congress  of 
Vienna  in  1815. — There  were  principalities  of  less  than  one  square  mile  in 
extent.  The  particularism  engendered  by  this  state  of  affairs  has  always  been 
one  of  the  greatest  handicaps  with  which  federal  government  in  Germany 
has  had  to  contend. 

20 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

The  designation  as  ''German  Emperor"  should  be  noted, 
because  it  is  significant  of  the  manner  of  union  of  the  German 
Empire.  The  aged  monarch  was  insistent  that  the  title  should 
be  "Emperor  of  Germany."  To  this  the  sovereigns  of  the 
other  German  states  objected,  as  carrying  the  implication  of 
their  own  subjection.  Between  ''German  Emperor"  or  "Em- 
peror in  Germany"  and  "Emperor  of  Germany,"  they 
pointed  out,  there  was  a  wide  difference.  "German  Emperor" 
implied  merely  that  the  holder  of  that  title  was  primus  inter 
pares,  merely  the  first  among  equals,  the  presiding  officer  of 
an  aggregation  of  sovereigns  of  equal  rank  who  had  con- 
ferred this  dignity  upon  him,  just  as  a  diet,  by  electing  one 
of  its  number  chairman,  confers  upon  him  no  superiority  of 
rank,  but  merely  designates  him  to  conduct  their  delibera- 
tions. These  sovereigns'  jealousy  of  their  own  prerogatives 
had  at  first  led  them  to  consider  vesting  the  imperial  honors 
alternately  with  the  Prussian  and  Bavarian  King,  but  this 
idea  was  abandoned  as  impracticable.  At  the  urgent  repre- 
sentations of  Bismarck  the  aged  King  consented,  with  tears 
in  his  eyes,  it  is  said,  to  accept  the  designation  of  German 
Emperor. 

The  German  Empire  as  thus  formed  consisted  of  twenty- 
five  states  and  the  Reichsland  of  Alsace-Lorraine,  which 
was  administered  by  a  viceroy  appointed  by  the  King  of 
Prussia.  The  empire  was  a  federated  union  of  states  much  on 
the  pattern  of  the  United  States  of  America,  but  the  federa- 
tive character  was  not  completely  carried  out  because  of  the 
particularism  of  certain  states.  The  Bavarians,  whose  cus- 
toms of  life,  easy-going  ways,  and  even  dialects  are  more 
akin  to  those  of  the  German  Austrians  than  of  the  Prus- 
sians,^ exacted  far-reaching  concessions  as  the  price  of  their 
entrance  into  the  empire.  They  retained  their  own  domestic 
tariff-imposts,  their  own  army  establishment,  currency,  rail- 
ways, posts,  telegraphs  and  other  things.  Certain  other 
states  also  reserved  a  number  of  rights  which  ought,  for  the 

*The  Bavarians  have  from  early  days  disliked  the  Prussians  heartily. 
Sflupreuss'  (sow-Prussian)  and  other  even  less  elegant  epithets  were  in  com- 
mon use  against  the  natives  of  the  dominant  state.  It  must  in  fairness  be 
admitted  that  this  dislike  was  the  natural  feeling  of  the  less  efficient  Ba- 
varian against  the  efficient  and  energetic  Prussian. 

21 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

formation  of  a  perfect  federative  union,  to  have  been  con- 
ferred upon  the  central  authority.  On  the  whole,  however, 
these  reservations  proved  less  of  a  handicap  than  might 
have  been  expected. 

The  Imperial  German  Constitution  adopted  at  this  time 
was  in  many  ways  a  remarkable  document.  It  cleverly  com- 
bined democratic  and  absolutist  features.  The  democratic 
features  were  worked  out  with  a  wonderful  psychological  in- 
stinct. In  the  hands  of  almost  any  people  except  the  Germans 
or  Slavs  the  democratic  side  of  this  instrument  would  have 
eventually  become  the  predominant  one.  That  it  did  not  is  a 
tribute  to  the  astuteness  of  Bismarck  and  of  the  men  who, 
under  his  influence,  drafted  the  constitution. 

The  German  Parliament  or  Reichsrat  was  composed  of 
two  houses,  the  Bundesrat,  or  Federal  Council,  and  the 
Reichstag,  or  Imperial  Diet.  The  Federal  Council  was  de- 
signed as  the  anchor  of  absolutism.  It  was  composed  of  fifty- 
eight  members,  of  whom  seventeen  came  from  Prussia,  six 
from  Bavaria,  and  four  each  from  Saxony  and  Wiirttemberg. 
The  larger  of  the  other  states  had  two  or  three  each,  and 
seventeen  states  had  but  one  each.  In  191 1  three  members 
were  granted  to  Alsace-Lorraine  by  a  constitution  given  at 
that  time  to  the  Reichsland.  The  members  of  the  Federal 
Council  were  the  direct  representatives  of  their  respective 
sovereigns,  by  whom  they  were  designated,  and  not  of  the 
people  of  the  respective  states.  Naturally  they  took  their  in- 
structions from  their  sovereigns.  Nearly  all  legislative  meas- 
ures except  bills  for  raising  revenue  had  to  originate  in  the 
Federal  Council,  and  its  concurrence  with  the  Reichstag  was 
requisite  for  the  enactment  of  laws.  A  further  absolutist 
feature  of  the  constitution  was  the  provision  that  fourteen 
votes  could  block  an  amendment  to  the  constitution.  In  other 
words,  Prussia  with  her  seventeen  members  could  prevent 
any  change  not  desired  by  her  governing  class. 

The  Reichstag,  the  second  chamber  of  the  parliament, 
was  a  truly  democratic  institution.  Let  us  say  rather  that  it 
could  have  become  a  democratic  institution.  Why  it  did  not 
do  so  will  be  discussed  later.  It  consisted  of  397  members, 
who  were  elected  by  the  most  unlimited  suffrage  prevailing 

22 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

at  that  time  in  all  Europe.  It  is  but  recently,  indeed  within 
the  last  five  years,  that  as  universal  and  free  a  suffrage  has 
been  adopted  by  other  European  countries,  and  there  are  still 
many  which  impose  limitations  unknown  to  the  German 
Constitution.  Every  male  subject  who  had  attained  the  age 
of  twenty-five  years  and  who  had  not  lost  his  civil  rights 
through  the  commission  of  crime,  or  who  was  not  a  delinT 
quent  taxpayer  or  in  receipt  of  aid  from  the  state  or  his  com- 
munity as  a  pauper,  was  entitled  to  vote.  The  vote  was  secret 
and  direct,  and  the  members  of  the  Reichstag  were  responsi- 
ble only  to  their  constituents  and  not  subject  to  instructions 
from  any  governmental  body  or  person.  They  were  elected 
for  a  term  of  three  years,^  but  their  mandates  could  be  termi- 
nated at  any  time  by  the  Kaiser,  to  whom  was  reserved  the 
right  to  dissolve  the  Reichstag.  If  he  dissolved  it,  however, 
he  was  compelled  to  order  another  election  within  a  definite- 
ly stated  period. 

One  very  real  power  was  vested  in  the  Reichstag.  It  had 
full  control  of  the  empire's  purse  strings.  Bills  for  raising 
revenue  and  all  measures  making  appropriations  had  to  orig- 
inate in  this  chamber,  and  its  assent  was  required  to  their 
enactment.  The  reason  for  its  failure  to  exercise  this  control 
resolutely  must  be  sought  in  the  history  of  the  German 
people,  in  their  inertia  where  active  participation  in  govern- 
mental matters  is  concerned,  and  in  those  psychological 
characteristics  which  Bismarck  so  well  comprehended  and 
upon  which  he  so  confidently  counted. 

No  people  on  earth  had  had  a  more  terrible  or  continuous 
struggle  for  existence  than  the  various  tribes  that  later  amal- 
gamated to  form  the  nucleus  for  the  German  Empire,  Their 
history  is  a  record  of  almost  continuous  warfare,  going  back 
to  the  days  of  Julius  Caesar.  In  the  first  years  of  the  Christian 
era  the  Germans  under  Arminius  (Hermann)  crushed  the 
Romans  of  Varus's  legions  in  the  Teutoburg  Forest,  and  the 
land  was  racked  by  war  up  to  most  modern  times.  Most  of 
its  able-bodied  men  were  exterminated  during  the  Thirty 
Years  War  (1618-1648).^  This  almost  constant  preoccupa- 

^This  was  later  altered  to  five  years. 

"The  population  of  Germany  dropped  from  twenty  to  less  than  seven 
millions  during  this  war. 

23 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

tion  in  war  had  a  twofold  result :  it  intensified  the  struggle 
for  existence  of  the  common  man  and  kept  him  from  devoting 
either  his  thoughts  or  energies  to  problems  of  government, 
and  it  strengthened  the  powers  of  a  comparatively  small  rul- 
ing-class, who  alone  possessed  any  culture  and  education  and 
whose  efforts  were  naturally  directed  to  keeping  their  serfs 
in  the  subjection  of  ignorance.  These  conditions  prevailed 
until  well  into  the  last  century. 

The  conditions  can  best  be  appreciated  by  a  comparison 
with  the  conditions  existing  in  England  at  the  same  time. 
England,  too,  had  had  her  wars,  but  her  soil  was  but  rarely 
ravaged  by  foreign  invaders,  and  never  to  the  extent  in 
which  Germany  repeatedly  suffered.  Parliamentary  govern- 
ment of  a  sort  had  existed  more  than  three  centuries  in  Eng- 
land before  it  reached  Germany.  A  milder  climate  than  that 
of  North  Germany  made  the  struggle  for  the  bare  neces- 
saries of  life  less  strenuous,  and  gave  opportunity  to  a  greater 
proportion  of  the  people  to  consider  other  things  than  the 
mere  securing  of  enough  to  eat  and  drink.  They  began  to 
think  politically  centuries  before  political  affairs  ceased 
to  rest  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  nobility  of  Germany. 

The  Germans  of  the  lower  and  middle  classes — in  other 
words,  the  vast  majority  of  the  whole  people — were  thus 
both  without  political  training  and  without  even  the  inclina- 
tion to  think  independently  along  political  lines.  Some  ad- 
vance had,  it  is  true,  been  made  along  these  lines  since  the 
Napoleonic  wars,  but  the  events  of  1871  nevertheless  found 
the  great  mass  of  the  people  without  political  tutelage  or 
experience.  People  even  more  politically  inclined  would 
have  found  themselves  handicapped  by  this  lack  of  training, 
and  the  German — particularly  the  Southern  German — is 
not  politically  inclined.  This  will  be  discussed  more  fully  in 
the  chapters  dealing  with  the  course  of  events  following  the 
revolution  of  191 8.  It  will  be  sufficient  to  point  out  here  the 
German's  inclination  to  abstract  reasoning,  to  philosophiz- 
ing and  to  a  certain  mysticism ;  his  love  of  music  and  fine  arts 
generally,  his  undeniable  devotion  to  the  grosser  creature- 
comforts,  eating  and  drinking,  and  his  tendency  not  to  wor- 
ry greatly  about  governmental  or  other  impersonal  affairs 

24 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

provided  he  be  kept  well  fed  and  amused.  It  is,  in  brief,  the 
spirit  to  which  the  Roman  emperors  catered  with  the  panem 
et  circenses,  and  which  manifests  itself  strikingly  in  the  Ger- 
man character.  The  result  of  all  this  was  a  marked  inertia 
which  characterized  German  political  life  up  to  recent  years. 
Even  when  a  limited  political  awakening  came  it  was  chief- 
ly the  work  of  German-Jews,  not  of  Germans  of  the  old 
stock. 

These,  then,  were  the  conditions  that  prevented  the  demo- 
cratic features  of  the  imperial  Constitution  from  acquiring 
that  prominence  and  importance  which  they  would  have 
acquired  among  a  different  people.  The  Kaiser  could  dis- 
solve the  Reichstag  at  will.  Why,  then,  bother  oneself  about 
opposing  the  things  desired  by  the  Kaiser  and  his  brother 
princes?  It  merely  meant  going  to  the  trouble  of  a  new  elec- 
tion, and  if  that  Reichstag  should  prove  recalcitrant  also, 
it  could  in  its  turn  be  dissolved.  Apparently  it  never  occurred 
to  the  mass  of  the  Germans  that  the  Kaiser  could  not  go  on 
indefinitely  dissolving  a  representative  body  which  insisted 
upon  carrying  out  the  people's  will.  The  Reichstag,  being  on 
the  whole  neither  much  wiser  nor  more  determined  than  the 
people  that  elected  it,  accepted  this  view  of  the  situation.  Oc- 
casionally it  showed  a  bit  of  spirit,  notably  when  it  adopted 
a  vote  of  censure  against  the  government  in  the  matter  of 
the  Zabern  affair  in  191 3.  On  the  whole,  however,  it  ac- 
cepted meekly  the  role  that  caused  it  to  be  termed,  and  just- 
ly, a  "debating  club."  And  this  was  precisely  the  role  that 
had  been  planned  for  it  by  the  drafters  of  the  constitution. 

In  justice  to  the  Reichstag,  however,  one  thing  should  be 
pointed  out.  When  the  German  Empire  was  formed  the 
country  was  still  predominantly  an  agricultural  land.  The 
election  districts  were  on  the  whole  justly  erected,  and  no 
one  section  of  the  country  had  a  markedly  disproportionate 
number  of  representatives.  It  was  not  long,  however,  before 
the  flight  to  the  cities  began  in  Germany  as  in  other  coun- 
tries, and  at  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  the  greater 
part  of  Germany's  population  lived  in  the  cities.  The  result 
was  speedily  seen  in  the  constitution  of  the  Reichstag,  since 
no  redistricting  was  ever  made  since  the  original  districting 

25 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

of  1 87 1.  Greater  Berlin,  with  a  population  around  four  mil- 
lion, elected  but  six  representatives  to  the  Reichstag.  In 
other  words,  there  were  some  660,000  inhabitants  for  every 
delegate.  The  agricultural  districts,  however,  and  especially 
those  of  Northern  Germany — East  Elbia,  as  it  is  termed — 
continued  to  elect  the  same  number  of  representatives  as  at 
the  beginning  to  represent  a  population  which  had  increased 
but  little  or  not  at  all.  There  were  districts  in  East  and  West 
•  Prussia,  Brandenburg,  Mecklenburg,  Pomerania  and  Posen 
where  fewer  than  ten  thousand  voters  were  able  to  send  a 
representative  to  the  Reichstag. 

The  result  was  the  natural  one.  Throughout  the  world  con- 
servatism has  its  headquarters  on  the  farms.  The  farmers 
cling  longest  to  the  old  order  of  things,  they  free  themselves 
the  most  slowly  from  tradition,  they  are  least  susceptible  to 
sociological  and  socialistic  ideas  and,  in  so  far  as  they  own 
their  own  land,  they  are  among  the  strongest  supporters  of 
vested  property- rights.  In  no  other  country  was  this  more 
the  case  than  in  Germany,  and  especially  in  the  districts 
mentioned,  where  large  estates  predominate  and  whence 
have  come  for  two  hundred  years  the  most  energetic,  faith- 
ful and  blindly  loyal  servants  of  their  sovereign.  The  cities, 
on  the  other  hand,  and  particularly  the  larger  cities  are  the 
strongholds  of  new  ideas.  They  are  in  particular  the  breed- 
ing-places of  Socialism  and  Communism.  Five  of  the  six 
Reichstag  members  elected  from  Greater  Berlin  in  191 2 
were  Social- Democrats,  and  the  sixth  was  a  Progressive 
with  advanced  democratic  ideas. 

With  the  shifting  population  and  the  consequent  distor- 
tion of  the  election  districts,  a  tremendous  advantage  ac- 
crued to  the  rural  communities;  in  other  words,  the  forces 
opposed  to  democratic  reforms  and  in  favor  of  maintaining 
and  even  increasing  the  powers  of  the  King  and  Emperor 
steadily  increased  proportionately  their  representation  in 
the  Reichstag  at  the  expense  of  the  friends  of  democracy.  At 
the  Reichstag  election  of  19(2  the  Socialists  cast  roundly 
thirty-five  per  cent  of  the  total  popular  vote.  Handicapped 
by  the  unjust  districting,  however,  they  were  able  to  elect 
only  no  delegates,  whereas  their  proportion  of  the  total 

26 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

vote  entitled  them  to  139.  The  Progressives,  most  of  whose 
strength  also  lay  in  the  cities,  likewise  received  fewer  mem- 
bers than  their  total  vote  entitled  them  to  have.  Under  a 
fair  districting  these  two  parties  would  together  have  had 
nearly  a  clear  majority  of  the  Reichstag.  There  is  reason  to 
believe  that  the  whole  course  of  history  of  the  last  years 
would  have  been  altered  had  Germany  honestly  reformed 
her  Reichstag  election  districts  ten  years  ago.  On  such  small 
things  does  the  fate  of  nations  often  rest. 

The  Kaiser,  as  the  president  of  the  empire,  was  authorized 
to  "represent  the  empire  internationally."  He  named  the 
diplomatic  representatives  to  foreign  courts  and  countries 
and  to  the  Vatican.  He  was  empowered  to  make  treaties, 
and  to  declare  defensive  warfare  provided  the  enemy  had 
actually  invaded  German  territory.  He  could  not  declare  an 
offensive  war  without  the  consent  of  the  Federal  Council, 
nor  a  defensive  war  unless  the  invasion  mentioned  had  taken 
place.  He  was  commander-in-chief  of  the  navy,  and  of  the 
Prussian  army  and  the  armies  of  the  other  federal  states  ex- 
cept of  Saxony  and  Bavaria,  which  maintained  their  own 
military  establishments.  He  appointed — in  theory — all  fed- 
eral officials  and  officers  of  the  army  and  navy.  On  the  whole^ 
however,  his  powers  as  German  Emperor  were  strictly  lim- 
ited and  hardly  went  beyond  the  powers  of  the  ruler  of  any 
constitutional  monarchy. 

It  was  as  King  of  Prussia,  however,  that  he  really  exer- 
cised the  greatest  power,  and  thus  vicariously  strengthened 
his  powers  in  the  empire  at  large.  The  parliamentary  system 
of  Prussia  was  archaic  and  designed  to  make  impossible  any 
really  democratic  government  or  a  too  severe  limitation  up- 
on the  powers  of  the  King.  It  was,  like  the  Imperial  Parlia- 
ment, made  up  of  two  chambers,  a  House  of  Lords  and  a 
Diet.  The  upper  chamber,  the  House  of  Lords,  was  composed 
of  men  appointed  by  the  King,  either  for  a  fixed  term  or  for 
life.  It  goes  without  saying  that  all  these  men  were  strong 
supporters  of  the  monarchic  system  and  outspoken  enemies 
of  democracy.  No  legislation  could  be  enacted  against  their 
will.  The  composition  of  the  Diet,  moreover,  was  such  that 
the  House  of  Lords  had  until  very  recent  years  little  to  fear 

27 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

in  the  way  of  democratic  legislation.  It  was  elected  by  the 
so-called  three-class  system,  under  which  a  wealthy  man 
frequently  had  greater  voting  power  than  his  five  hundred 
employees  together.  The  ballot  moreover  was  indirect, 
the  delegates  being  elected  by  a  complicated  system  of 
electors.  In  addition  to  all  this,  the  ballot  was  open,  not 
secret.  This  placed  a  powerful  weapon  in  the  hands  of  the 
employing  classes  generally  and  of  the  great  estate-owners 
particularly.  The  polling-places  in  rural  districts  were  gen- 
erally located  on  land  belonging  to  one  of  these  estates,  and 
the  election  officials  were  either  the  estate-owners  themselves 
or  men  dependent  on  them.  In  these  circumstances  it  took  a 
brave  man  to  vote  otherwise  than  his  employer  desired,  and 
there  was  no  way  of  concealing  for  whom  or  what  party  he 
had  voted.  Bismarck  himself,  reactionary  and  conservative 
as  he  was,  once  termed  the  Prussian  three-class  voting-sys- 
tem "the  most  iniquitous  of  all  franchise  systems." 

Around  this  a  fight  had  waged  for  several  years  before 
the  revolution.  The  Kaiser,  as  King  of  Prussia,  flatly  prom- 
ised, in  his  address  from  the  throne  in  1908,  that  the  system 
should  be  reformed.  It  is  a  matter  of  simple  justice  to  record 
that  he  made  the  promise  in  good  faith  and  tried  to  see  that 
it  was  kept.  His  eff"orts  along  this  line  were  thwarted  by  a 
small  clique  of  men  who  were  determined  "to  protect  the 
King  against  himself,"  and  who,  lacking  even  the  modicum 
of  political  prescience  possessed  by  the  Kaiser-King,  failed 
to  see  that  if  they  did  not  make  a  concession  willingly  they 
would  eventually  be  forced  to  make  a  concession  of  much 
greater  extent.  From  year  to  year  measures  to  reform  the 
three-class  system  were  introduced,  only  to  be  killed  by  the 
House  of  Lords.  Under  the  stress  of  the  closing  days  of  the 
war  such  a  measure  was  perfected  and  would  have  become 
a  law  had  not  the  revolution  intervened.  But  it  came  too 
late,  just  as  did  scores  of  other  reforms  undertaken  in  the 
eleventh  hour. 

And  thus,  while  the  Kaiser's  power  as  German  Emperor 
was  sharply  limited,  he  enjoyed  powers  as  King  of  Prussia 
which  in  some  degree  approached  absolutism.  The  domi- 
nance of  Prussia  in  the  empire,  while  it  could  not  transfer 

28 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

these  powers  to  the  Emperor  de  jure,  did  unquestionably 
effect  to  some  degree  a  de  facto  transfer,  which,  while  it  did 
not  in  the  long  run  have  a  very  actual  or  injurious  internal 
effect,  nevertheless  played  a  no  inconsiderable  part  in  the 
outside  world  and  was  responsible  for  a  general  feeling  that 
Germany  was  in  effect  an  absolute  monarchy.  German  apolo- 
gists have  maintained  that  Wilhelm  II  had  less  actual  power 
as  German  Emperor  than  that  possessed  by  the  President  of 
the  United  States.  This  statement  is  undoubtedly  true,  but 
with  an  important  limitation  and  qualification.  The  Presi- 
dent's great  powers  are  transitory  and  cannot — or  in  prac- 
tice do  not — extend  more  than  eight  years  at  the  most.  His 
exercise  of  those  powers  is  governed  and  restrained  during 
the  first  four  years  by  his  desire  to  be  re-elected;  during  the 
second  four  years  he  must  also  use  his  powers  in  such  a  way 
that  a  democratic  people  will  not  revenge  itself  at  the  next 
election  upon  the  President's  party.  But  the  Kaiser  and  King 
was  subject  to  no  such  limitation.  He  ruled  for  life,  and  a  dis- 
satisfied people  could  not  take  the  succession  away  from  the 
Hohenzollerns  except  by  revolution.  And  nobody  expected 
or  talked  of  revolution.  The  only  real  control  over  abuses  of 
power  rested  with  a  Reichstag  which,  as  has  already  been 
explained,  was  too  faithful  a  reflex  of  a  non-political  and 
inert  constituency  to  make  this  control  of  more  than  mild 
academic  interest. 


29 


CHAPTER  II. 
The  German  Conception  of  the  State. 

WE  have  seen  how  the  whole  manner  of  life  and 
the  traditions  of  the  Germans  were  obstacles  to 
their  political  development.  Mention  has  also 
been  made  of  their  peculiar  tendency  toward  abstract  phil- 
osophic habits  of  thought,  which  art  not  only  inexplicable 
by  the  manner  of  the  people's  long-continued  struggle  for 
existence,  but  seem  indeed  to  prevail  in  defiance  of  it. 

In  addition  to  this  powerful  factor  there  existed  another 
set  of  factors  which  worked  with  wonderful  effectiveness 
toward  the  same  end — the  crippling  of  independent  and 
practical  political  thinking.  This  was  the  conception  of  the 
state  held  by  the  ruling-classes  of  Germany  and  their  manner 
of  imposing  this  conception  upon  the  people.  It  may  briefly 
be  put  thus :  the  people  existed  for  the  sake  of  the  state,  not 
the  state  for  the  sake  of  the  people.  The  state  was  the  central 
and  great  idea;  whatever  weakened  its  authority  or  power 
was  of  evil.  It  could  grant  free  play  to  individualism  only 
in  those  things  that  could  not  affect  the  state  directly,  such 
as  music  and  the  fine  arts,  and  to  abstract  philosophy  and 
literature — particularly  the  drama — as  long  as  they  avoided 
dangerous  political  topics.  Its  keynote  was  authority  and  the 
subjection  of  the  individual  to  the  welfare  of  the  state. 

The  tendency  of  this  system  to  make  for  efficiency  so  far 
as  the  actual  brute  power  of  a  state  is  concerned  cannot  be 
denied  in  the  light  of  the  events  of  the  World  War.  We  have 
seen  how  in  America  itself,  the  stronghold  of  political  and 
religious  liberty,  individualism  was  sternly  repressed  and 
even  slight  offenses  against  the  authority  of  the  state  were 
punished  by  prison  sentences  of  a  barbarous  severity  un- 
known in  any  civilized  country  of  Europe.  We  have  seen  the 

31 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

churches,  reinterpreting  the  principles  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  the  schools,  rewriting  history  to  supposed  good 
ends,  both  enlisted  in  this  repression  of  individualism  for 
the  sake  of  increasing  the  efficiency  of  the  state  at  a  time 
when  the  highest  efficiency  was  required. 

But  the  distinction  between  such  conditions  here  and  the 
pre-war  conditions  in  Germany  is  that  they  obtained,  al- 
though in  milder  form,  in  Germany  in  peace  times  as  well. 
And  the  Anglo-Saxon  conception  of  the  state  is  as  of  a  thing 
existing  for  the  sake  of  the  people  and  with  no  possible  in- 
terests that  cannot  be  served  by  the  democratic  and  indi- 
vidualistic development  of  its  people.  Between  this  concep- 
tion and  the  conception  held  by  Germany's  rulers  there  is  a 
wide  and  irreconcilable  difference. 

Apart,  however,  from  any  consideration  of  the  merits  of 
the  German  system,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  world  has 
never  seen  another  such  intelligent  application  of  principles 
of  statecraft  to  the  end  sought  to  be  attained.  That  the  sys- 
tem eventually  collapsed  was  not  due  to  its  internal  faults, 
but  to  abnormal  and  unforeseeable  events.  The  extent  of  its 
collapse,  however,  was  directly  due  to  the  structure  of  the 
system  itself. 

It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  authority  was  the 
keynote  of  the  German  system.  This  authority,  embodied  in 
school  and  church,  began  to  mold  the  plastic  mind  of  the 
German  child  as  early  as  the  age  of  six.  "The  Emperor  is 
the  father  of  his  country  and  loves  his  children  like  a  father ; 
we  owe  him  the  obedience  due  to  a  father,"  taught  the 
school.  "  Submit  yourselves  unto  authority,"  said  the  church, 
using  Paul's  words  to  serve  the  ends  of  the  state.  The  child 
came  from  school  and  church  to  his  military  service  and 
found  authority  enthroned  there.  He  had  to  obey  the  orders 
of  every  Vorgesetzter  (superior  in  authority)  from  field 
marshal  down  to  corporal.  He  found  that,  in  the  absence  of 
officers  or  non-commissioned  officers,  he  must  submit  him- 
self to  the  authority  of  the  Stubendltester,  the  senior  soldier 
in  the  same  room  with  him.  Insubordination  was  punished 
rigorously. 

Precept,  example  and  punishment  were  but  a  part  of  a 

32 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

system  calculated  to  make  discipline  and  submission  to  au- 
thority advisable  and  profitable.  The  penalties  prescribed 
by  the  German  penal  and  military  codes  for  infractions  of 
the  laws  were  far  less  severe  than  the  penalties  prescribed 
in  the  code  of  any  American  state,  but  conviction  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  consequence  of  great  moment  in  Germany :  the 
man  who  was  vorbestrajt,  that  is,  who  had  been  punished 
for  any  transgression,  found  himself  automatically  excluded 
from  any  opportunity  to  become  a  Beamier,  or  government 
official. 

The  system  of  punishment  had  always  as  its  chief  purpose 
the  laying  of  emphasis  upon  duty,  and  this  was  often  ar- 
rived at  in  an  indirect  way.  For  example,  the  soldier  who 
failed  to  keep  his  valuables  in  the  locker  provided  for  him 
in  his  barracks  and  who  lost  them  by  theft,  was  punished  for 
his  own  negligence. 

No  other  country  in  the  world  employed  so  large  a  pro- 
portion of  its  total  population  in  the  administration  of  gov- 
ernment, and  in  no  other  country  was  the  system  so  cleverly 
calculated  to  make  government  office  attractive  to  the  aver- 
age man.  The  salaries  were  not  larger  than  those  earned  by 
men  ofthe  same  class  in  non-official  employments,  but  employ- 
ment under  the  government  offered  in  addition  both  mate- 
rial and  moral  advantages.  The  chief  material  advantage 
was  the  right  to  retire  after  a  specified  number  of  years  of 
service  on  liberal  pension.  The  moral  advantages  rested  in 
the  dignity  of  government  service  and  in  the  special  protec- 
tion afforded  government  servants.  A  carefully  graded  scale 
of  titles  made  its  appeal  to  personal  vanity.  This  has  fre- 
quently been  described  as  particularly  German,  but  it  was, 
in  the  last  analysis,  merely  human.  There  are  comparatively 
few  men  in  any  country,  not  excluding  America,  who  are 
totally  indifferent  to  titles,  and  there  is  at  least  one  state 
whose  fondness  for  them  has  become  a  stock,  subject  for  all 
American  humorists.  What  was,  however,  particularly  Ger- 
man was  the  astuteness  with  which  the  ruling-classes  of  Ger- 
many had  turned  this  human  weakness  to  account  as  an  as- 
set of  government,  and  also  the  extent  to  which  it  had  been 
developed,  epecially  downward.  Mr.  Smith,  who  cleans  the 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

streets  of  an  American  city,  would  not  be  especially  grati- 
fied to  be  addressed  as  Mr.  Street-Cleaner,  but  his  German 
colleague  felt  a  glow  of  pride  at  hearing  the  address  "  Herr 
Street- Cleaner  Schmidt,"  and  this  feeling  was  a  very  real 
asset  to  his  government.  It  was  the  same  at  the  other  end  of 
the  scale.  The  government  councillor  was  the  more  faithful 
and  energetic  in  his  devotion  to  the  government's  work  be- 
cause he  knew  that  by  faithfulness  and  energy  he  would 
eventually  become  a  "privy  government  councillor"  and  the 
next  step  would  be  to  "real  privy  government  councillor, 
with  the  predicate  'Your  Excellency'."  And  since  wives  bore 
the  titles  of  their  husbands,  the  appeal  was  doubly  strong. 

The  Beamier  enjoyed  furthermore  special  protection  un- 
der the  law.  To  call  an  ordinary  person  "idiot,"  for  example, 
was  a  Beleidigung  or  insult,  but  the  same  term  applied  to  a 
Beamier  became  Beainienbeleidigung,  or  "insult  to  an  of- 
ficial," and  involved  a  much  sharper  punishment,  and  this 
punishment  increased  with  the  dignity  of  the  person  insulted 
until  the  person  of  the  Kaiser  was  reached,  an  insult  to 
whom  was  Majesidisbeleidigung,  an  insult  to  majesty,  or 
Ihe  majesie,  a.s  the  French  term  it.  Prosecutions  for  Majes- 
idisbeleidigung were  not  frequent,  but  the  law  was  occasion- 
ally invoked.  One  of  the  last  prosecutions  for  this  offense  oc- 
cured  in  191 3,  when  a  man  who  had  demonstratively  turned 
a  picture  of  the  Kaiser  toward  the  wall  in  the  presence  of  a 
large  gathering  was  sent  to  jail  for  four  months. 

Personal  vanity  was  further  exploited  by  a  system  of 
orders,  decorations  and  civil-service  medals.  This  system 
originated  from  an  ancient  custom  which,  with  increasing 
travel,  had  become  onerous.  Royalty  was  everywhere  ex- 
pected to  tip  servants  only  with  gold,  and  since  the  smallest 
gold  coin  was  the  equivalent  of  the  American  $2.50-piece, 
this  constituted  a  severe  financial  tax  on  the  poorer  ruler  of 
small  principalities,  who  traveled  much.  One  of  these  petty 
rulers  conceived  the  bright  idea  of  creating  a  system  of 
bronze  orders  or  medallions  and  substituting  these  inex- 
pensive decorations  for  tips.  The  event  justified  his  expecta- 
tions ;  they  were  esteemed  more  highly  than  cash  tips  by 
people  whose  vanity  was  flattered  at  receiving  a  "decoration" 

34 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

from  royalty.  Eventually  all  states  and  the  Empire  adopted 
them.  On  fete  days  railway  station-masters  could  be  recog- 
nized on  the  streets  by  their  numerous  decorations.  The  rail- 
way-engineer, the  mail-carrier,  the  janitor  in  a  government 
office — all  these  men  knew  that  so  many  years  of  loyal  serv- 
ice meant  recognition  in  the  form  of  some  sort  of  decora- 
tion for  the  coat-lapel,  and  these,  in  the  stratum  of  society 
in  which  they  moved,  were  just  as  highly  regarded  as  was 
the  Red  Eagle  or  Hohenzollern  House  Order  in  higher 
classes  of  society.  There  is  no  room  whatever  for  doubt  that 
these  things,  whose  actual  cost  was  negligible,  played  a 
large  part  in  securing  faithful  and  devoted  service  to  the 
government  and  compensated  largely — and  especially  in  the 
case  of  higher  officials — for  somewhat  niggardly  salaries. 
A  prominent  English  statesman,  visiting  Berlin  some  years 
before  the  war,  expressed  to  the  writer  his  regret  that  Eng- 
land had  not  built  up  a  similar  system,  which,  in  his  opinion, 
was  a  powerful  factor  in  securing  a  cheap  and  good  admin- 
istration of  public  affairs.  Like  the  system  of  titles,  it  took 
advantage  of  a  weakness  not  merely  German,  but  human. 
Instances  of  the  refusal  of  foreign  orders  and  decorations 
by  Americans  are  rare. 

All  these  things,  then,  were  factors  of  almost  inestimable 
value  in  building  up  a  strong  governmental  machine.  At 
bottom,  however,  the  whole  structure  rested  upon  another 
factor  which  should  receive  ungrudging  admiration  and 
recognition,  regardless  of  one's  attitude  toward  Germany 
or  its  governing  classes.  This  was  the  strong  sense  of  duty 
inculcated  in  every  German,  man  or  woman,  from  lowest  to 
highest.  Self-denial,  a  Spartan  simplicity,  faithfulness  in 
the  discharge  of  one's  obligations — these  were  the  character- 
istics that  set  their  seal  upon  the  average  German.  In  some 
of  the  larger  cities,  and  notably  in  Berlin,  the  Spartan  ideals 
of  life  had  been  somewhat  abandoned  in  the  years  preceding 
the  w^ar,  but  elsewhere  they  persisted,  and  nowhere  to  a 
greater  extent  than  among  the  ruling-classes  of  Prussia,  the 
so-called  Junker.  Former  Ambassador  Gerard  has  paid  a 


35 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

deserved  tribute  to  this  class,^  and  the  universal  condem- 
nation visited  upon  them  by  democratic  peoples  cannot 
justify  a  refusal  to  give  them  their  due. 

This  uncompromising  devotion  to  duty  had  its  roots  in 
old  Prussian  history.  Frederick  William  I,  father  of  Fred- 
erick the  Great,  threatened  his  son  with  death  if  he  were 
found  derelict  in  what  the  stern  old  man  regarded  as  the 
duty  of  a  future  ruler. 

The  whole  rule  of  Frederick  the  Great  was  marked  by  a 
rigid  sense  of  duty.  He  termed  himself  "the  first  servant  of 
the  state,"  and  no  servant  worked  harder  or  allowed  him- 
self less  leisure  or  fewer  bodily  comforts.  It  was  this  mon- 
arch who,  told  of  a  brave  act  of  sacrifice  by  one  of  his  of- 
ficers, refused  to  consider  it  as  anything  calling  for  special 
recognition.  Er  hat  nur  seine  verdammte  Pflicht  und  Sckuld- 
igkeit  getan  (he  did  only  his  accursed  duty),  said  the  King. 
This  saying  became  the  formula  that  characterized  the  at- 
titude of  the  Prussian-German  Beamten  in  their  relations 
to  the  state.  Whatever  was  (or  was  represented  as)  their 
"accursed  duty"  must  be  done,  regardless  of  personal  con- 
siderations or  rewards. 

In  the  catalogue  of  virtues  enumerated  we  have  one  im- 
portant group  of  prerequisites  to  efficient  government. 
There  remain  two  things :  intelligence  and  education.  The 
first  can  be  dismissed  briefly.  The  average  of  intelligence 
in  all  civilized  countries  is  probably  much  the  same.  There 
would  not  be  much  difference  in  native  capacity  and  ability 
between  the  best  thousand  of  a  million  Germans  or  of  a 
million  men  of  any  other  race.  In  respect  of  education  and 
training,  however,  German  officials  as  a  whole  were  at  least 
the  equal  of  any  body  of  government  servants  anywhere  in 
the  world  and  the  superior  of  most.  In  the  first  place,  edu- 
cational qualifications  were  definitely  laid  down  for  every 
category  of  officials.  Nor  were  these  qualifications  deter- 
mined, as  in  the  American  civil-service,  by  an  examination. 

*"  There  is  no  leisure  class  among  the  Junkers,  They  are  all  workers, 
patriotic,  honest  and  devoted  to  the  Emperor  and  the  Fatherland.  If  it  is 
possible  that  government  by  one  class  is  to  be  suffered,  then  the  Prussian 
Junkers  have  proved  themselves  more  fit  for  rule  than  any  class  in  history. 
Their  virtues  are  Spartan,  their  minds  narrow  but  incorruptible,  and  their 
bravery  and  patriotism  undoubted.  One  can  but  admire  them  and  their  stern 
virtues."  James  W.  Gerard,  My  Four  Years  in  Germany,  p.  123. 

36 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

The  candidate  must  have  attended  school  and  taken  the  pre- 
scribed course  for  a  term  of  years,  varying  with  the  impor- 
tance of  the  government  career  to  which  he  aspired. 

This  insured  the  possession  of  adequate  educational  quali- 
fications of  civil  servants,  and  there  was  another  thing  of 
first  importance  in  the  building  up  of  a  strong  and  efficient 
civil-service.  The  "spoils  system"  in  connection  with  public 
office  was  absolutely  unknown  in  Germany.  The  idea  that 
appointments  to  the  government's  service  should  depend  up- 
on the  political  faith  of  the  appointee  was  one  th~at  never 
occurred  to  any  German.  If  it  had  occurr-ed  to  him  it  would 
have  been  immediately  dismissed  as  inconsistent  with  the 
best  administration  of  the  government's  affairs,  as,  indeed, 
it  is.  The  only  partisan  qualification,  or  rather  limitation, 
upon  eligibility  to  public  office  was  that  members  of  the  So- 
cial-Democratic party  were  ineligible,  and  that  government 
employees  might  not  become  members  of  that  party.  From 
the  standpoint  of  the  ruling-classes  this  was  natural.  It  was 
more;  it  was  requisite.  For  the  German  Socialists  were  the 
avowed  an'd  uncompromising  enemies  of  the  existing  gov- 
ernment; they  were  advocates  of  a  republic;  they  were  the 
outspoken  enemies  of  all  authority  except  the  authority  of 
their  own  class,  for  which  they  assumed  to  be  the  only  legiti- 
mate spokesmen,  and  they  were,  like  Socialists  the  world 
over,  internationalists  first  and  patriots  second.  No  govern- 
ment could  be  expected  to  help  its  bitterest  opponents  to 
power  by  giving  places  of  honor  and  profit  to  their  repre- 
sentatives. 

The  tenure  of  government  officials,  except,  of  course,  that 
of  ministers,  was  for  life.  Promotion  was  by  merit,  not  by 
influence.  The  result  was  an  efficiency  which  is  generally 
admitted.  The  municipal  administration  of  German  cities 
in  particular  became  the  model  for  the  world.  The  system 
withstood  the  practical  test;  it  worked.  The  Chief  Burgo- 
master of  Greater  Berlin  is  a  man  whose  whole  life-training 
has  been  devoted  to  the  administration  of  cities.  Beginning 
in  a  subordinate  position  in  a  small  city,  he  became  eventu- 
ally its  burgomaster  (mayor),  then  mayor  of  a  larger  city, 
and  so  on  until  he  was  called  to  take  charge  of  the  adminis- 

37 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

tration  of  the  empire's  largest  city.  His  career  is  typical  of 
the  German  pre-revolutionary  methods  of  choosing  public 
servants,  and  the  same  principle  was  applied  in  every  de- 
partment of  the  government's  service. 

From  the  purposely  brief  sketch  of  German  officialdom's 
characteristics  and  efficiency  which  has  been  presented  it 
will  be  apparent  that  such  a  system  was  a  powerful  weapon 
in  the  hands  of  any  ruling-class.  Its  efficiency  might  reason- 
ably be  expected  to  crush  any  revolution  in  the  bud,  and  the 
loyalty  of  the  men  composing  it  might  equally  be  expected 
to  maintain  to  the  last  their  allegiance  to  the  classes  that 
represented  authority,  with  its  supreme  fount  in  the 
person  of  the  ruler  himself.  That  these  expectations  were 
not  fulfilled  would  seem  to  testify  to  the  inherent  and  irre- 
sistible strength  of  the  revolution  that  upset  it.  We  shall  see 
later,  however,  that  it  was  a  different  class  of  men  with  whom 
the  revolution  had  to  cope.  Against  the  spirit  of  German 
officialdom  of  ante-bellum  days  revolution  would  have  raised 
its  head  in  vain. 

The  authority  of  the  German  state  had  anotheV  and  even 
more  powerful  weapon  than  the  Beamtentum.  This  was  the 
military  establishment  and  the  officer-corps.  Upon  this  in 
the  first  instance  the  throne  of  the  Hohenzollerns  was  sup- 
ported. 

Enlightened  democracy  discovered  centuries  ago  that  a 
large  standing  army  may  easily  become  the  tool  of  abso- 
lutism and  the  enemy  of  free  institutions.  This  discovery 
found  expression  in  England  in  the  consistent  refusal  of 
Parliament  to  create  an  army  in  permanence.  The  laws  estab- 
lishing the  English  army  had  to  be  renewed  periodically,  so 
that  it  was  possible  at  any  time  for  the  representatives  of  the 
people  to  draw  the  teeth  of  the  military  force  if  an  attempt 
should  be  made  to  use  that  force  for  tyrannical  ends.  But 
the  Germans,  as  has  already  been  explained,  lacked  demo- 
cratic training  and  perceptions.  Germany  was  moreover  in 
a  uniquely  dangerous  position.  No  other  great  power  had 
such  an  unfavorable  geographical  situation.  On  the  west 
was  France,  and  there  were  thousands  of  Germans  who  had 
been  told  by  their  fathers  the  story  of  the  Napoleonic  slav- 

38 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

ery.  On  the  east  was  Russia,  stronghold  of  absolutism,  with 
inexhaustible  natural  resources  and  a  population  more  than 
twice  Germany's.  Great  Britain  commanded  the  seas,  and 
Germany  had  to  import  or  starve. 

It  cannot  fairly  be  doubted  that,  placed  in  a  similar  situa- 
tion, the  most  pacific  nation  would  have  armed  itself  to  the 
teeth.  But — and  this  is  all-important — it  is  difficult  to  im- 
agine that  such  other  nation  would  have  become  militaristic. 

The  stock  answer  of  German  apologists  to  the  accusations 
regarding  "militarism"  as  exemplified  in  Prussia-Germany 
has  been  the  assertion  that  France  spent  more  money  per 
capita  on  her  military  establishment  than  did  Germany. 
This  statement  is  true,  but  those  making  it  overlooked  the 
real  nature  of  the  charge  against  them.  They  did  not  realize 
that  militarism,  as  the  world  saw  it  in  their  country,  was  not 
concrete,  but  abstract;  it  was,  in  brief,  a  state  of  mind.  It 
could  have  existed  equally  well  if  the  army  had  been  but  a 
quarter  as  large,  and  it  did  not  exist  in  France,  which, 
in  proportion  to  her  population,  had  a  larger  army  than 
Germany.  It  exalted  the  profession  of  arms  above  all  else; 
it  divided  the  people  into  two  classes,  military  and  civil- 
ians. Its  spirit  was  illustrated  strikingly  by  the  fact  that  when 
Wilhelm  II  ascended  the  throne,  his  first  act  was  to  issue  a 
proclamation  to  the  army,  but  it  was  not  until  three  days 
later  that  his  proclamation  to  the  people  was  issued.  Mil- 
itarism gave  the  youngest  lieutenant  at  court  precedence 
over  venerable  high  civilian  officials. 

The  spirit  of  militarism  permeated  even  to  the  remotest 
corners  of  daily  activity  in  all  walks  of  life.  The  gatekeeper 
at  a  railway  crossing  must  stand  at  attention,  with  his  red 
flag  held  in  a  prescribed  manner,  while  the  train  is  passing. 
A  Berlin  mail-carrier  was  punished  for  saluting  a  superior 
with  his  left  hand,  instead  of  with  the  right.  A  street-car 
conductor  was  fined  for  driving  his  car  between  two  wagons 
of  a  military  transport.  This  was  in  peace  times,  and  the 
transport  was  conveying  hay.  That  the  passengers  in  the  car 
would  otherwise  have  had  to  lose  much  time  was  of  no  conse- 
quence; nothing  could  be  permitted  to  interfere  with  any- 
thing hallowed  by  connection  with  the  military  establish- 

39 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

ment.  When  Herr  von  Bethmann  Hollweg  was  appointed 
Imperial  Chancellor  it  was  necessary  to  give  him  military 
rank,  since  he  had  never  held  it.  He  was  created  a  general, 
for  it  could  not  be  suffered  that  a  mere  civilian  should  oc- 
cupy the  highest  post  in  the  empire  next  to  the  Kaiser.  The 
Kaiser  rarely  showed  himself  in  public  in  civilian  attire. 

It  was  but  natural  that  the  members  of  the  officer-corps 
held  an  exalted  opinion  of  their  own  worth  and  dignity. 
Militarism  is  everywhere  tarred  with  the  same  stick,  and 
army  officers,  if  freed  from  effective  civil  control,  exhibit 
in  all  lands  the  same  tendency  to  arbitrariness  and  to  a  scorn 
and  contempt  for  mere  civilians.  Such  release  from  control 
is  seen  in  other  lands,  however,  only  in  time  of  war,  where- 
as it  was  a  permanently  existing  state  of  affairs  in  Germany. 
It  worked  more  powerfully  there  than  would  have  been  the 
case  anywhere  else,  for  all  the  country's  traditions  and  his- 
tory were  of  a  nature  to  exalt  military  service.  Ravaged  by 
war  for  centuries,  Germany's  greatness  had  been  built  up 
by  the  genius  of  her  army  leaders  and  the  bravery  and  loyal- 
ty of  her  soldiers.  Hundreds  of  folksongs  and  poems  known 
to  every  German  child  glorified  war  and  its  heroes.  The 
youthful  Theodor  Korner,  writing  his  Gebet  vor  der  Schlacht 
(Prayer  before  the  Battle)  by  the  light  of  the  bivouac-fires 
a  few  hours  before  the  battle  in  which  he  was  killed,  makes 
a  picture  that  must  appeal  even  to  persons  who  abhor  war. 
How  much  greater,  then,  must  its  appeal  have  been  to  a 
military  folk! 

The  German  officer  was  encouraged  to  consider  himself  of 
better  clay  than  the  ordinary  civilian.  His  "honor"  was  more 
delicate  than  the  honor  of  women.  It  was  no  infrequent  oc- 
currence for  an  officer,  willing  to  right  by  marriage  a  wo- 
man whom  he  had  wronged,  to  be  refused  permission  either 
because  she  did  not  have  a  dowry  corresponding  to  his  rank, 
or  because  she  was  of  a  lower  social  class.  Duelling  among 
officers  was  encouraged,  and  to  step  on  an  officer's  foot,  or 
even  to  stare  too  fixedly  at  him  (fixieren)  was  an  insult  call- 
ing for  a  duel.  An  officer's  credit  was  good  everywhere.  His 
word  was  as  readily  accepted  as  a  civilian's  bond,  and  hon- 
esty requires  that  it  be  said  that  his  trust  was  rarely  mis- 

40 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

placed.  His  exaggerated  ideas  of  honor  led  frequently  to  an 
arrogant  conduct  toward  civilians,  and  occasionally  to.  as- 
saults upon  offenders,  which  in  a  few  instances  took  the  form 
of  a  summary  sabering  of  the  unfortunate  victim.^ 

The  crassest  of  the  outward,  non-political  manifestations 
of  militarism  in  recent  years  was  the  Zabern  affair.  A  young 
lieutenant  had  sabered  a  crippled  shoemaker  for  a  real  or  fan- 
cied offense  against  military  rules.  The  townspeople  made  a 
demonstration  against  the  officer,  and  the  colonel  command- 
ing the  regiment  stationed  at  Zabern  locked  a  number  of  the 
civilians  in  the  cellar  of  the  barracks  and  kept  them  there  all 
night.  This  was  too  much  even  for  a  docile  German  Reichs- 
tag, and  an  excited  debate  was  followed  by  the  passing  of 
a  vote  of  censure  on  a  government  which,  through  the  mouths 
of  its  Chancellor  and  War  Minister,  had  justified  the  colo- 
nel's actions.  The  colonel  and  the  lieutenant  were  convicted 
upon  trial  and  adequate  sentences  were  imposed  upon  them, 
but  the  convictions  were  significantly  set  aside  upon  appeal 
and  both  escaped  punishment.  It  was  in  connection  with  this 
affair  that  the  German  Crown  Prince  earned  the  censure  of 
the  soberer  German  elements  by  sending  an  encouraging 
telegram  to  the  arbitary  colonel. 

Militarism,  in  the  aspects  discussed,  was  a  purely  internal 
affair  and  concerned  only  the  German  people  themselves. 
But  there  was  another  aspect,  and  it  was  this  that  made  it  a 
menace  to  the  peace  of  the  world  and  to  true  democracy. 

The  very  possession  of  an  admirable  weapon  is  a  constant 
temptation  to  use  it.  This  temptation  becomes  stronger  in 
proportion  as  it  springs  with  inclination.  The  Germans  of 
the  last  fifty  years  were  not  a  bellicose  people.  They  had 
suffered  too  greatly  from  wars  within  the  recollection  of 
millions  of  men  and  women  still  living.  On  the  other  hand, 

^Some  travelers  and  a  certain  class  of  correspondents  have  unduly  exag- 
gerated the  conditions  referred  to.  They  have  pictured  murders  of  this  sort 
as  of  frequent  occurrence,  and,  if  they  could  be  believed,  German  officers 
made  it  a  custom  to  require  women  in  the  street  cars  to  surrender  their 
seats  to  them.  In  many  years'  residence  in  Germany  the  author  learned  of 
but  two  cases  of  the  murder  of  civilians  by  officers,  and  'he  never  saw  a  dis- 
play of  rudeness  toward  a  woman.  The  German  officer  almost  invariably 
responded  in  kind  to  courtesy,  but  he  did  expect  and  require  deference  from 
civilians. 

41 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

they  were  familiar  with  war  and  the  thought  of  it  did  not 
invoke  the  same  repugnant  fears  and  apprehensions  as  among 
less  sorely  tested  peoples.  The  mothers  of  every  generation 
except  the  youngest  knew  what  it  meant  to  see  husbands, 
sons  and  brothers  don  the  King's  coat  and  march  away  be- 
hind blaring  bands;  they  knew  the  anxiety  of  waiting  for 
news  after  the  battle,  and  the  grief  that  comes  with  the  an- 
nouncement of  a  loved  one's  death,  and  they  considered  it 
dimly,  if  they  philosophized  about  it  at  all,  as  one  of  the 
things  that  must  be  and  against  which  it  were  unavailing 
to  contend.  But  the  officers  as  a  whole  were  bellicose.  The 
reasons  are  multifold.  It  is  inherent  in  the  profession  that 
officers  generally  are  inclined  to  desire  war,  if  for  no  other 
reason,  than  because  it  means  opportunities  for  advancement 
and  high  honors.  Beyond  this,  the  German  officer's  training 
and  traditions  taught  him  that  war  was  in  itself  a  glorious 
thing. 

In  trying  to  understand  the  influences  that  dominated  the 
government  of  Germany  in  its  relations  to  foreign  coun- 
tries it  must  be  clearly  realized  and  remembered  that  the 
real  rulers  of  Germany  came  from  the  caste  that  had  for 
nearly  two  centuries  furnished  the  majority  of  the  members 
of  the  officer-corps.  The  Emperor-King,  assuming  to  rule  by 
the  grace  of  God,  in  reality  ruled  by  the  grace  of  the  old 
nobility  and  landed  gentry  of  Prussia,  from  whose  ranks  he 
sprang.  This  had  been  aptly  expressed  eighty  years  earlier 
by  the  poet  Chamisso,  in  whose  Nachtwdchtcrlied  appear 
the  lines : 

Und  der  Konig  ahsolut, 
Wenn  er  unseren  Willen  tut! 

(Let  the  King  be  absolute  so  long  as  he  does  our  will.)  It 
was  inevitable  that  the  views  of  this  class  should  determine 
the  views  of  government,  and  the  only  remarkable  thing 
about  the  situation  was  that  some  of  the  men  who,  by  the 
indirect  mandate  of  this  caste,  were  responsible  for  the  con- 
duct of  the  government,  were  less  bellicose  and  more  pacific 
than  their  mandate-givers.  There  were  some  men  who,  in- 
fected with  the  virus  of  militarism,  dreamed  of  the  Welt- 

42 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

Imperium,  the  eventual  domination  of  the  world  by  Ger- 
many, to  be  attained  by  peaceful  methods  if  possible,  but 
under  the  threatening  shadow  of  the  empire's  mighty  mili- 
tary machine,  which  could  be  used  if  necessary.  Yet  even  in 
their  own  caste  they  formed  a  minority. 

Such,  in  brief  outline,  was  Germany — an  empire  built  on 
the  bayonets  of  the  world's  greatest  and  most  efficient  army 
and  administered  by  tens  of  thousands  of  loyal  and  efficient 
civil  servants.  How  was  it  possible  that  it  could  be  over- 
thrown? 

In  the  last  analysis  it  was  not  overthrown ;  it  was  destroyed 
from  within  by  a  cancer  that  had  been  eating  at  its  vitals 
for  eighty  years.  And  the  seeds  of  this  cancer,  by  the  strange 
irony  of  fate,  were  sown  in  Germany  and  cultivated  by  Ger- 
mans. 

The  cancer  was  Socialism,  or  Social- Democracy,  as  it  is 
termed  in  Germany. 


43 


CHAPTER  III. 

Internationalism  and  Vaterlandslose 
Gesellen. 

THE  concluding  statement  in  the  previous  chapter 
must  by  no  means  be  taken  as  a  general  arraignment 
of  Socialism,  and  it  requires  careful  explanation. 
Indiscriminately  to  attack  Socialism  in  all  its  economic 
aspects  testifies  rather  to  mental  hardihood  than  to  an  un- 
derstanding of  these  aspects.  A  school  of  political  thought 
which  has  so  powerfully  affected  the  polity  of  all  civilized 
nations  in  the  last  fifty  years  and  has  put  its  impress  upon 
the  statutes  of  those  countries  cannot  be  lightly  dismissed 
nor  condemned  without  qualification. 

Citizens  of  the  recently  allied  countries  will  be  likely  also 
to  see  merit  in  Socialism  because  of  the  very  fact  that,  in  one 
of  its  aspects,  it  played  a  large  part  in  overthrowing  an  en- 
emy government.  Let  this  be  clearly  set  down  and  understood 
at  the  very  beginning :  the  aspects  of  Socialism  that  made  the 
German  governmental  system  ripe  for  fall  were  and  are 
inimical  not  only  to  the  governmental  systems  of  all  states, 
but  to  the  very  idea  of  the  state  itself. 

More :  The  men  responsible  for  the  debacle  in  Germany — 
and  in  Russia — regard  the  United  States  as  the  chief  strong- 
hold of  capitalism  and  of  the  privilege  of  plutocracy,  and  the 
upsetting  of  this  country's  government  would  be  hailed  by 
them  with  as  great  rejoicing  as  were  their  victories  on  the 
continent. 

The  aspect  of  Socialism  that  makes  it  a  menace  to  current 
theories  of  government  is  "internationalism" — its  doctrine 
that  the  scriptural  teaching  that  all  men  are  brothers  must 
become  of  general  application,  and  the  negation  of  patriot- 

45 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

ism  and  the  elimination  of  state  boundaries  which  that  doc- 
trine logically  and  necessarily  implies.  And  this  doctrine 
was  "made  in  Germany." 

The  basic  idea  of  Socialism  goes  back  to  the  eighteenth 
century,  but  its  name  was  first  formulated  and  applied  by  the 
Englishman  Robert  Owen  in  1835.  Essentially  this  school 
of  political  thought  maintains  that  land  and  capital  gen- 
erally— the  "instruments  of  production" — should  become 
the  property  of  the  state  or  society.  "The  alpha  and  omega 
of  Socialism  is  the  transformation  of  private  competing  ag- 
gregations of  capital  into  a  united  collective  capital."^  Ethi- 
calh'  Socialism  is  merely  New  Testament  Christianity,  but, 
as  will  be  seen  later,  it  is  in  effect  outspokenly  material,  ir- 
religious and  even  actively  anti- religious. 

Socialism  received  its  first  clear  and  intelligent  formula- 
tion at  the  hands  of  Karl  Marx  and  Friedrich  Engels,  both 
Germans,  although  Marx  was  of  Jewish  descent.  In  1847 
these  two  men  reorganized  under  the  name  "Communist 
League"  a  society  of  Socialists  already  in  existence  in  Lon- 
don. The  "Manifesto  of  the  Communist  League"  issued  by 
these  two  men  in  1848  was  the  first  real  proclamation  of  a 
Socialism  with  outspoken  revolutionary  and  international 
aims.  It  demanded  that  the  laboring-classes  should,  after 
seizure  of  political  might,  "by  despotic  interference  with 
the  property  rights  and  methods  of  production  of  the  bour- 
geoisie, little  by  little  take  from  them  all  capital  and  central- 
ize all  instruments  of  production  in  the  hands  of  the  state, 
i.  e.,  in  the  hands  of  the  proletariat  organized  as  the  ruling- 
class."  Marx  and  Engels  recommended  therefore  the  ex- 
propriation of  real  estate,  the  confiscation  of  the  property 
of  all  emigrants  and  the  centralization  in  the  hands  of  the 
state  of  all  means  of  credit  (banks)  and  transportation. 

The  dominant  idea  of  the  Socialism  of  this  period  was 
that  set  forth  by  Marx  in  his  book.  Das  Kapital,  which  be- 
came the  textbook  of  the  movement.  It  was,  in  brief,  that  all 
wealth  is  produced  by  labor,  and  that  the  surplus  above  the 
amount  necessary  for  the  bare  existence  of  the  laborers  is 
appropriated  by  the  capitalists.  Marx's  admirers  have  often 

^Die  Quintessenz  des  Sozialismus,  by  Schaffle. 

46 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

endeavored  to  show  that  the  communism  advocated  by  him 
in  these  first  years  was  not  the  violent  communism  that  has 
eventuated  in  the  last  years  in  Bolshevism  and  kindred  move- 
ments under  other  names.  The  question  is  of  only  academic 
interest,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  Marx  himself  later  realized 
that  existing  institutions  could  not  so  easily  be  overturned 
as  he  had  hoped  and  believed  in  1848.  Engels  had  also  come 
to  a  realization  of  the  same  fact,  and  in  1872,  when  the  two 
men  prepared  a  new  edition  of  the  Manifesto  of  twenty-four 
years  earlier,  they  admitted  frankly: 

"The  practical  application  of  these  principles  will  always 
and  everywhere  depend  upon  historically  existing  condi- 
tions, and  we  therefore  lay  no  especial  stress  upon  the  revo- 
lutionary measures  proposed.  In  the  face  of  the  tremendous 
development  of  industry  and  of  the  organization  of  the  labor- 
ing-classes accompanying  this  development,  as  well  as  in 
view  of  practical  experience,  this  program  is  alreaciy  in 
part  antiquated.  The  Commune  (of  187 1  in  Paris)  has  sup- 
plied the  proof  that  the  laboring-class  cannot  simply  take 
possession  of  the  machinery  of  state  and  set  it  in  motion  for 
its  own  purposes." 

This  awakening,  however,  came,  as  has  been  pointed  out, 
nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  after  the  founding  of  a  So- 
cialist kindergarten  which  openly  taught  revolution.  In  its 
first  years  this  kindergarten  concerned  itself  only  with  na- 
tional (German)  matters,  and  was  only  indirectly  a  menace 
to  other  countries  by  its  tendency  to  awaken  a  spirit  of  un- 
rest among  the  laboring-classes  and  to  set  an  example  which 
might  prove  contagious.  In  1864,  however,  the  Internatio- 
nale was  founded  with  the  cooperation  of  Marx  and  Engels, 
and  Socialism  became  a  movement  which  directly  concerned 
all  the  states  of  the  world. 

This  development  of  Socialism  was  logical  and  natural, 
for  its  creed  was  essentially  and  in  its  origins  international. 
It  had  originated  in  England  in  the  days  of  the  inhuman 
exploitation  of  labor,  and  especially  child-labor,  by  con- 
scienceless and  greedy  capitalists.  It  had  been  tried  out  in 
France.  Prominent  among  its  advocates  were  many  Rus- 
sians, notably  Michael  Bakunin,  who  later  became  an  an- 

47 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

archist.  Perhaps  the  majority  of  its  advocates  on  the  conti- 
nent were  Jews  or  of  Jewish  descent,  for  no  other  race  has 
ever  been  so  truly  international  and  so  little  bound  by  state 
lines.  The  Interfiationale  had  been  in  the  air  for  years  before 
it  was  actually  organized;  that  organization  was  delayed 
for  sixteen  years  by  no  means  indicates  that  the  idea  was 
new  in  1864. 

The  basic  idea  of  the  Internationale  has  already  been  re- 
ferred to.  It  accepted  as  a  working-creed  the  biblical  doc- 
trine that  God  "hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men," 
but  it  diregarded  the  further  declaration  in  the  same  verse 
of  the  Scriptures  that  He  "hath  determined  the  bounds  of 
their  habitation."  The  Socialist  creed  teaches  the  brother- 
hood of  man  and  the  equality  of  all  men  irrespective  of  race, 
color  or  belief.  The  inescapable  corollary  of  this  creed  is  that 
patriotism,  understood  as  unreasoning  devotion  to  the  real 
or  supposed  interests  of  the  state,  cannot  be  encouraged  or 
even  suffered.  And  this  standpoint  necessarily  involves  fur- 
ther the  eventual  obliteration  of  the  state  itself,  for  any 
state's  chief  reason  for  existence  in  a  non-altruistic  world 
is  the  securing  of  special  privileges,  benefits,  advantages  and 
protection  for  its  own  citizens,  without  consideration  for  the 
inhabitants  of  other  states.  If  this  exercise  of  its  power  be 
prohibited,  the  state's  reason  for  existence  is  greatly  dimin- 
ished. Indeed,  it  can  have  virtually  only  a  social  mission 
left,  and  a  social  mission  pure  and  simple  cannot  inspire  a 
high  degree  of  patriotism. 

Many  non-Socialist  thinkers  have  perceived  the  antithesis 
between  the  doctrine  of  the  universal  brotherhood  of  man 
and  the  particularism  of  national  patriotism.  Bjornstjerne 
Bjornson  wrote :  "  Patriotism  is  a  stage  of  transition."  This 
doctrine  may  come  as  a  shock  to  the  average  reader,  yet  it 
is  undoubtedly  a  prophetic  and  accurate  statement  of  what 
will  some  day  be  generally  accepted.  Thoughtfully  consid- 
ered, the  idea  will  be  found  less  shocking  than  it  at  first  ap- 
pears. Neither  Bjornson  nor  any  other  non-Socialist  con- 
templates the  abandonment  of  patriotism  and  state  lines  ex- 
cept by  natural  development.  The  world,  in  other  words, 
is  in  a  transitional  stage,  and  when  this  transition  shall  have 

4a 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

been  completed  it  will  find  a  world  where  the  egoism  of 
national  patriotism  has  made  way  for  the  altruism  of  inter- 
nationalism. And  this  will  have  been  accomplished  without 
violent  revolutionay  changes,  but  merely  by  a  natural  and 
peaceful  evolutionary  development. 

Against  such  a  development,  if  it  come  in  the  manner  de- 
scribed and  anticipated,  nobody  can  properly  protest.  But 
the  Socialists  of  the  international  school — and  this  is  what 
niakes  international  Socialism  a  menace  to  all  governments 
and  gradually  but  surely  undermined  the  German  state — 
will  not  wait  upon  the  slow  processes  of  transition.  Upon 
peoples  for  whom  the  flags  of  their  respective  countries  are 
still  emblems  of  interests  transcending  any  conceivable  in- 
terests of  peoples  outside  their  own  state  boundaries,  em- 
blems of  an  idea  which  must  be  unquestioningly  and  un- 
thinkingly accepted  and  against  which  no  dictates  of  the 
brotherhood  of  other  men  or  the  welfare  of  other  human 
beings  have  any  claim  to  consideration,  the  Socialists  would 
impose  over  night  their  idea  of  a  world  without  artificial 
state  lines,  and  would  substitute  the  red  flag  for  those  em- 
blems which  the  majority  of  all  mankind  still  reverence  and 
adore.  It  requires  no  profound  thinking  to  realize  that  such 
a  change  must  be  preceded  by  a  long  period  of  preparation 
if  anarchy  of  production  and  distribution  is  to  be  avoided. 
To  impose  the  rule  of  an  international  proletariat  under  the 
present  social  conditions  means  chaos.  The  world  has  seen 
this  exemplified  in  Russia,  and  yet  Russia,  where  the  social 
structure  was  comparatively  simple  and  industry  neither 
complex  nor  widely  developed,  was  the  country  where,  if 
anywhere  today,  such  an  experiment  might  have  succeeded. 

Socialist  leaders,  including  even  the  internationalists,  have 
perceived  this.  The  murdered  Jaures  saw  it  clearly.  But  in 
the  very  nature  of  things,  the  vast  majority  of  the  adherents 
of  these  doctrines  are  not  profound  thinkers.  Socialism  natu- 
rally recruits  itself  from  the  lower  classes,  and  it  is  no  dis- 
paragement to  these  to  say  that  they  are  the  least  educated. 
Even  in  states  where  the  higher  institutions  of  learning  are 
free — and  there  are  very  few  such  places — the  ability  of  the 
poor  man's  son  to  attend^ them  is  limited  by  the  necessity  rest- 

49 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

ing  upon  him  to  make  his  own  living  or  to  contribute  to  the 
support  of  his  family.  The  tenets  of  national  Socialism  natur- 
ally appeal  to  the  young  man,  who  feels  that  he  and  his 
fellows  are  being  exploited  by  those  who  own  the  "instru- 
ments of  production,"  and  who  sees  himself  barred  from  the 
educational  advantages  which  wealth  gives.  From  the  ac- 
ceptance of  the  economic  tenets  of  national  Socialism  to  ad- 
vocacy of  internationalism  is  but  a  small  step,  easy  to  take 
for  one  who,  in  joining  the  Socialist  party,  finds  himself 
the  associate  of  men  who  address  him  as  "comrade"^  and 
who  look  forward  to  a  day  when  all  men,  white,  black  or 
yellow,  shall  also  be  comrades  under  one  flag  and  enlisted 
in  one  cause — the  cause  of  common  humanity.  These  men 
realize  no  more  than  himself  the  fact  that  existing  social 
conditions  are  the  result  of  historical  development  and  that 
they  cannot  be  violently  and  artificially  altered  without  de- 
stroying the  delicate  balance  of  the  whole  machine.  And 
since  this  is  the  state  of  mind  of  the  majority  of  the  "com- 
rades," even  the  wisest  leaders  can  apply  the  brakes  only 
with  great  moderation,  for  the  leader  who  lags  too  far  be- 
hind the  majority  of  his  party  ceases  to  be  a  leader  and  finds 
his  place  taken  by  less  intelligent  or  less  scrupulous  men. 

Ferdinand  Lassalle,  the  brilliant  but  erratic  young  man 
who  organized  the  first  Socialist  party  in  Germany,  was  a 
national  Socialist.  His  party  grew  slowly  at  first,  and  in 
1864,  when  he  died,  it  had  but  4,600  members.  In  1863 
Marx,  aided  by  August  Bebel  and  Wilhelm  Liebknecht,^ 
formed  the  rival  Confederation  of  German  Unions  upon  an 
internationalistic  basis.  This  organization  joined  the  Inter- 
nationale at  its  congress  in  Nuremburg  in  1868.  The  parties 
of  Marx  and  Lassalle  maintained  their  separate  identities 
until   1875,  when  they  effected  a  fusion  at  a  congress  in 

'It  will  be  remembered  that  during  the  last  months  of  the  war  especially, 
our  newspapers  and  comic  sheets  abounded  in  reports  and  pictures  of 
German  soldiers  running  over  to  the  enemy  crying:  "Kamerad!"  The 
countless  number  of  such  instances  shows  how  completely  the  German 
army  had  become  infected  by  Socialism.  The  word  Kamerad  is  international 
in  sound  and  meaning.  It  must  properly  be  considered  as  the  rallying-cry 
of  Socialism  everywhere  for  the  fight  against  Capitalism. 

^Called  "the  elder  Liebknecht"  to  distinguish  him  from  his  son  Karl  Lieb- 
knecht,  who  was  killed  while  under  arrest  in  Berlin  in  the  winter  of  19 19. 

50 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

Gotha.  The  Marx  adherents  numbered  at  that  time  about 
9,000  men  and  the  Lassalle  adherents  some  15,000,  but  the 
latter  had  already  virtually  accepted  the  doctrines  of  inter- 
national Socialism  and  the  Internationale,  and  the  German 
Socialists  had  until  the  breaking  out  of  the  World  War  main- 
tained their  place  as  the  apostles  and  leaders  of  internation- 
alism. 

Socialism  first  showed  itself  as  a  political  factor  in  Ger- 
many in  1867,  when  five  Socialists  were  elected  to  the  North 
German  Diet.  Two  Genossen^  were  sent  to  the  first  Reichs- 
tag in  1 87 1,  with  a  popular  vote  of  120,000,  and  six  years 
later  nearly  a  half  million  red  votes  were  polled  and  twelve 
Socialists  took  their  seats  in  the  Reichstag.  The  voting- 
strength  of  the  party  in  Berlin  alone  increased  from  6,700 
in  1871  to  57,500  in  1877,  or  almost  ninefold. 

A  propaganda  of  tremendous  extent  and  extreme  ability 
was  carried  on.  No  bourgeois  German  politician  except  Bis- 
marck ever  had  such  a  keen  appreciation  of  the  power  of  the 
printed  word  as  did  those  responsible  for  Socialism's  mis- 
sionary work.  Daily  newspapers,  weekly  periodicals  and 
monthly  magazines  were  established,  and  German  Social- 
ism was  soon  in  possession  of  the  most  extensive  and  best 
conducted  Socialist  press  in  the  world.  The  result  was  two- 
fold :  the  press  contributed  mightily  to  the  spreading  of  its 
party's  doctrines  and  at  the  same  time  furnished  a  school  in 
which  were  educated  the  majority  of  the  party  leaders.  Prob- 
ably three  quarters  of  the  men  who  afterward  became  promi- 
nent in  the  party  owed  their  rise  and,  to  a  great  extent,  their 
general  education  to  their  service  on  the  editorial  staffs  of 
their  party's  press.  By  intelligent  reports  and  special  articles 
on  news  of  interest  to  all  members  of  the  Internationale, 
whether  German,  French,  English,  or  of  what  nationality 
they  might  be,  this  press  made  itself  indispensable  to  the 
leaders  of  that  movement  all  over  the  world,  and  contributed 
greatly  to  influencing  the  ideas  of  the  Socialists  of  other 
lands. 

Bismarck's   clear  political   vision   saw   the   menace   in   a 

^Genosse,  comrade,  is  the  term  by  which  all  German-speaking  Socialists 
address  each  other. 

51 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

movement  which  openly  aimed  at  the  establishment  of  a 
German  republic  and  at  the  eventual  overthrow  of  all  hour- 
geois  governments  and  the  elimination  of  local  patriotism 
and  state  lines.  In  1878  he  secured  from  the  Reichstag  the 
enactment  of  the  famous  Ausnahmegesetze  or  special  laws, 
directed  against  the  Socialists.  They  forbade  Socialist  pub- 
lications and  literature  in  general,  prohibited  the  holding  of 
Socialist  meetings  or  the  making  of  speeches  by  adherents 
of  the  party.  Even  the  circulation  of  Socialist  literature  was 
prohibited.  The  Ausnah^negesetze  legalized  as  an  imperial 
measure  the  treatment  that  had  already  been  meted  out  to 
Socialists  in  various  states  of  the  Empire.  Following  the 
Gotha  congress  in  1875,  fifty-one  delegates  to  the  congress 
were  sent  to  prison.  Wilhelm  Liebknecht  received  a  sentence 
of  three  years  and  eight  months  and  Bebel  of  two  years  and 
eleven  months.  In  Saxony,  from  1870  to  1875,  fifty  Social- 
ists underwent  prison  sentences  aggregating  more  than  forty 
years. 

But  Socialism  throve  on  oppression.  In  politics,  as  in  re- 
ligion, the  blood  of  the  martyrs  is  the  seed  of  the  church.  It 
would  be  praising  any  statesman  of  the  '8o's  too  highly  to 
say  that  he  had  learned  that  ideas  cannot  be  combated  with 
brute  force,  for  the  rulers  of  the  world  have  not  yet  learned 
it.  But  Bismarck  did  perceive  that,  to  give  any  promise  of 
success,  opposition  to  Socialism  must  be  based  upon  con- 
structive statesmanship.  To  many  of  the  party's  demands 
no  objection  could  be  made  by  intelligent  society.  And  so, 
in  the  address  from  the  throne  in  1 88 1,  an  extended  pro- 
gram of  state  socialism  was  presented.  With  the  enactment 
of  this  program  into  law  Germany  took  the  first  important 
step  ahead  along  the  road  of  state  Socialism,  and  all  her 
legislation  for  the  next  thirty  years  was  profoundly  influ- 
enced by  socialistic  thought,  in  part  because  of  a  recogni- 
tion of  the  wisdom  of  some  of  Socialism's  tenets,  in  part  be- 
cause of  a  desire  to  draw  the  party's  teeth  by  depriving  it 
of  campaign  material. 

More  than  a  decade  earlier  the  Catholic  Church  in  Ger- 
many had  recognized  the  threatening  danger  and  sought  to 
counteract  it  by  the  organization  of  Catholic  labor  unions. 

52 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

It  succeeded  much  better  in  its  purpose  than  did  the  gov- 
ernment, which  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  since  the  temporal 
affairs  of  the  church  have  always  been  administered  more 
intelligently  than  have  the  state  affairs  of  any  of  the  world's 
governments.  For  many  years  Socialism  made  compara- 
tively small  gains  in  Roman  Catholic  districts.  A  similar 
effort  by  the  Lutheran  (State)  Church  in  1878  accom- 
plished little,  and  Bismarck's  state  Socialism  also  accom- 
plished little  to  stop  the  spread  of  Socialist  doctrines. 

Kaiser  Wilheim  II  early  realized  the  menace  to  the  state 
of  these  enemies  of  patriotism  and  of  all  bourgeois  states. 
In  a  much  quoted  speech  he  termed  the  Socialists  vaterlands- 
lose  Gesellen  (fellows  without  a  Fatherland).  The  des- 
ignation stung  all  German  Socialists,  who,  ready  as  they 
were  in  theory  to  disavow  all  attachment  to  any  state,  did 
not  relish  this  kind  of  public  denunciation  by  their  monarch. 
The  word  Gesellen,  too,  wjien  used  in  this  sense  has  an  un- 
pleasant connotation. 

The  Socialists,  whose  political  tenets  necessarily  made 
them  opponents  of  royalty  and  monarchism  everywhere, 
were  particularly  embittered  against  a  Kaiser  whose  con- 
tempt for  them  was  so  openly  expressed.  Their  press,  which 
consistently  referred  to  him  baldly  as  "Wilheim  11"  sailed 
as  closely  into  the  wind  of  lese  majeste  as  possible,  and  some- 
times too  closely.  Leading  Socialist  papers  had  their  special 
Sitzredactcur,  or  "sitting-editor,"  whose  sole  function  con- 
sisted in  "sitting  out"  jail  sentences  for  insulting  the  Kaiser 
or  other  persons  in  authority.  Police  officials,  taking  their 
keynote  from  the  Kaiser,  prosecuted  and  persecuted  So- 
cialists relentlessly  and  unintelligently.  Funeral  proces- 
sions were  stopped  to  permit  policemen  to  remove  red' 
streamers  and  ribbons  from  bouquets  on  the  coffins,  and 
graves  were  similarly  desecrated  if  the  friends  or  mourn- 
ers had  ventured  to  bind  their  floral  offerings  with  the  red 
of  revolutionary  Socialism.  The  laws  authorizing  police 
supervision  of  all  public  meetings  were  relentlessly  en- 
forced against  Socialists,  and  their  gatherings  were  dis- 
solved by  the  police-official  present  at  the  least  suggestion 
of  criticism    of    the    authorities.    There    was    no    practical 

53 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

remedy  against  this  abuse  of  power.  An  appeal  to  the  courts 
was  possible,  but  a  decision  in  June  that  a  meeting  in  the 
preceding  January  had  been  illegally  dissolved  did  not 
greatly  help  matters.  Socialist  meetings  could  not  be  held  in 
halls  belonging  to  a  government  or  municipality,  and  the 
Socialists  often  or  perhaps  generally  found  it  impossible  to 
secure  meeting-places  in  districts  where  the  Conservatives 
or  National  Liberals  were  in  control.  Federal,  state  and 
municipal  employees  were  forbidden  to  subscribe  for  So- 
cialist publications,  or  to  belong  to  that  party. 

The  extent  of  these  persecutions  is  indicated  by  a  report 
made  to  the  Socialist  congress  at  Halle  in  1890,  shortly 
after  the  Ausnahmegesetze  had  expired  by  limitation,  after 
a  vain  attempt  had  been  made  to  get  the  Reichstag  to  re- 
enact  them.  In  the  twelve  years  that  the  law  had  been  in 
operation,  155  journals  and  1,200  books  and  pamphlets  had 
been  prohibited;  900  members  of  the  party  had  been  ban- 
ished from  Germany  without  trial;  1,500  had  been  arrested 
on  various  charges  and  300  of  these  punished  for  violations 
of  the  law. 

The  Ausnalnnegesetze  failed  of  thei/purpose  just  as  com- 
pletely as  did  the  Six  Acts^  of  1820  in  England.  Even  in 
1878,  the  very  year  these  laws  were  enacted,  the  Socialists 
polled  more  votes  than  ever  before.  In  1890  their  total  popu- 
lar vote  in  the  Empire  was  1,427,000,  which  was  larger 
than  the  vote  cast  for  any  other  single  party.  They  should 
have  had  eighty  members  in  that  year's  Reichstag,  but  the 
shift  in  population  and  consequent  disproportionateness  of 
the  election  districts  kept  the  number  of  Socialist  deputies 
down  to  thirty-seven.  At  the  Reichstag  election  of  1893 
their  popular  vote  was  1,800,000,  with  forty-four  deputies. 

It  may  be  seriously  questioned  whether  Bismarck's  un- 
fortunate legislation  did  not  actually  operate  to  increase 
the  Socialists'  strength.  Certain  it  is  that  it  intensified  the 
feeling    of    bitterness    against    the    government,    by    men 

^These  acts  were  passed  by  Parliament  after  the  Manchester  Riots  of  1819: 
to  prevent  seditious  meetings  for  a  discussion  of  subjects  connected  with 
church  or  state ;  to  subject  cheap  periodical  pamphlets  on  political  subjects 
to  a  duty ;  to  give  magistrates  the  power  of  entering  houses,  for  the  purpose 
of  seizing  arms  believed  to  be  collected  for  unlawful  purposes. 

54 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

whose  very  creed  compelled  them  to  regard  as  their  natural 
enemy  even  the  most  beneficent  bourgeois  government,  and 
who  saw  themselves  stamped  as  Pariahs.  This  feeling  found 
expression  at  the  party's  congress  in  1880  at  Wyden,  when 
a  sentence  of  the  program  declaring  that  the  party's  aim 
should  be  furthered  "by  every  lawful  means"  was  changed 
to  read,  "by  every  means."  It  must  in  fairness  be  recorded, 
however,  that  the  revolutionary  threat  of  this  change  ap- 
peared to  have  no  effect  on  the  subsequent  attitude  of  the 
party  leaders  or  their  followers.  The  record  of  German  So- 
cialism is  remarkably  free  from  violence  and  sabotage,  and 
the  revolution  of  1918  was,  as  we  shall  see,  the  work  of  men 
of  a  different  stamp  from  the  elder  Liebknecht  and  the 
sturdy  and  honest  Bebel. 

Two  great  factors  in  the  growth  of  Socialism  in  Germany 
remain  to  be  described.  These  were,  first,  the  peculiar  ten- 
dency of  the  Teutonic  mind,  already  mentioned,  to  abstract 
philosophical  thought,  without  regard  to  practicalities,  and, 
second,  the  accident  that  the  labor-union  movement  in  Ger- 
many was  a  child  of  party-Socialism. 

Socialism,  in  the  last  analysis,  is  nearer  to  New  Testament 
Christianity  than  is  any  other  politico-economic  creed,  and 
the  professions  and  habits  of  thought  of  nearly  all  men  in 
enlightened  countries  are  determined  or  at  least  powerfully 
influenced  by  the  precepts  of  Christ,  no  matter  how  far  their 
practices  may  depart  from  these  precepts.  Few  even  of  those 
most  strongly  opposed  to  Socialism  oppose  it  on  ethical 
grounds.  Their  opposition  is  based  on  the  conviction  that  it 
is  unworkable  and  impracticable;  that  it  fails  to  take  into 
consideration  the  real  mainsprings  of  human  action  and  con- 
duct as  society  is  today  constituted.  In  an  ideally  altruistic 
society,  they  admit,  it  would  be  feasible,  but,  again,  such  a 
society  would  have  no  need  of  it.  In  other  words,  the  fun- 
damental objection  is  the  objection  of  the  practical  man. 
Whether  his  objection  is  insuperable  it  is  no  part  of  the  pur- 
pose of  the  writer  to  discuss.  What  it  is  desired  to  make 
plain  is  that  Socialism  appeals  strongly  to  the  dreamer,  the 
closet-philosopher  who  concerns  himself  with  abstract  ethi- 
cal questions  without  regard  to  their  practicality  or  practica- 

55 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

bility  as  applied  to  the  economic  life  of  an  imperfect  society. 
And  there  are  more  men  of  this  type  in  Germany  than  in 
any  other  country. 

Loosely  and  inefficiently  organized  labor  unions  had  ex- 
isted in  Germany  before  the  birth  of  the  Socialist  move- 
ment, but  they  existed  independently  of  each  other  and 
played  but  a  limited  role.  The  first  labor  organization  of 
national  scope  came  on  May  23,  1863,  at  Leipsic,  when  Las- 
salle  was  instrumental  in  founding  Der  allgemeine  deutsche 
Arbeiterverein  (National  German  Workmen's  Union).  Or- 
ganized labor,  thus  definitely  committed  to  Socialism,  re- 
mained Socialist.  To  become  a  member  of  a  labor  union  in 
Germany — or  generally  anywhere  on  the  continent — means 
becoming  an  enrolled  member  of  the  Socialist  party  at  the 
same  time.  The  only  non-Socialist  labor  organizations  in 
Germany  were  the  Catholic  Hirsch-Duncker  unions,  organ- 
ized at  the  instance  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  to  prevent 
the  spread  of  Socialism.  These  were  boycotted  by  all  So- 
cialists, who  termed  them  the  "yellow  unions,"  and  regarded 
them  as  union  workmen  in  America  regard  non-union  work- 
ers. It  goes  without  saying  that  a  political  party  which 
automatically  enrolls  in  its  membership  all  workmen  who 
join  a  labor  union  cannot  help  becoming  powerful. 

That  international  Socialism  is  inimical  to  nationalism 
and  patriotism  has  already  been  pointed  out,  but  a  word 
remains  to  be  said  on  this  subject  with  reference  to  specific 
German  conditions.  We  have  already  seen  how  the  Ger- 
many of  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  a  loose 
aggregation  of  more  than  three  hundred  dynasties,  most  of 
which  were  petty  principalities.  The  heritage  of  that  time 
was  a  narrowly  limited  state  patriotism  which  the  Germans 
termed  Particularismus,  or  particularism.  Let  the  American 
reader  assume  that  the  State  of  Texas  had  originally  con- 
sisted of  three  hundred  separate  states,  each  with  its  own 
government,  and  with  customs  and  dialects  varying  greatly 
in  the  north  and  south.  Assume  further  that,  after  seventy 
years  filled  with  warfare  and  political  strife,  these  states 
had  been  re-formed  into  twenty-six  states,  with  the  ruler  of 
the  most  powerful  at  the  head  of  the  new  federation,  and 

56 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

that  several  of  the  twenty-six  states  had  reserved  control 
over  their  posts,  telegraphs,  railways  and  customs  as  the 
price  for  joining  the  federation.  Even  then  he  will  have  but 
a  hazy  picture  of  the  handicaps  with  which  the  Imperial 
German  Government  had  to  contend. 

Particularism  was  to  the  last  the  curse  and  weakness  of 
the  German  Empire.  The  Prussian  regarded  himself  first 
as  a  Prussian  and  only  in  second  place  as  a  German.  The 
Bavarian  was  more  deeply  thrilled  by  the  white-and-blue 
banner  of  his  state  than  by  the  black-white-red  of  the  Em- 
pire. The  republican  Hamburger  thanked  the  Providence 
that  did  not  require  him  to  live  across  the  Elbe  in  the  city 
of  Altona,  which  was  Prussian,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the 
former  kingdoms,  duchies  and  principalities  of  Western 
Germany  that  became  a  part  of  Prussia  during  the  decades 
preceding  the  formation  of  the  Empire  regularly  referred 
to  themselves  as  Muss-Preussen,  that  is,  "must-Prussians," 
or  Prussians  by  compulsion. 

The  attempt  to  stretch  this  narrowly  localized  patriotism 
to  make  it  cover  the  whole  Empire  could  not  but  result  in  a 
seriously  diluted  product,  which  offered  a  favorable  culture- 
medium  for  the  bacillus  of  internationalism.  And  in  any 
event,  to  apply  the  standards  of  abstract  ethical  reasoning 
to  patriotism  is  fatal.  The  result  may  be  to  leave  a  residue 
of  traditional  and  racial  attachment  to  one's  state,  but  that 
is  not  sufficient,  in  the  present  stage  of  human  society,  for 
the  maintenance  of  a  strong  government.  Patriotism  of  the 
my-country-right-or-wrong  type  must,  like  revealed  reli- 
gion, be  accepted  on  faith.  German  patriotism  was  never  of 
this  extreme  type,  and  in  attacking  it  the  Socialists  made 
greater  headway  than  would  have  been  the  case  in  most 
countries. 

The  Socialists  had  thus  seriously  weakened  the  state  at 
two  vital  points.  By  their  continuous  advocacy  of  a  republic 
and  their  obstructive  tactics  they  had  impaired  to  a  consid- 
erable extent  the  authority  of  the  state,  and  autocratic  gov- 
ernment rests  upon  authority.  By  their  internationalist  teach- 
ings they  had  shaken  the  foundations  of  patriotism.  And 
there  is  still  another  count  against  them. 

57 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

Opponents  of  Socialism  accuse  its  advocates  of  being  ene- 
mies of  the  Christian  religion  and  the  church.  Socialists  de- 
clare in  reply  that  Socialism,  being  a  purely  economic  school 
of  thought,  does  not  concern  itself  with  religious  matters 
in  any  manner.  They  point  out  further  that  the  programs 
of  Socialist  parties  in  all  lands  expressly  declare  religion  to 
be  a  private  matter  and  one  about  which  the  party  does  not 
concern  itself.  This  is  only  part  of  the  truth.  It  is  true  that 
Socialism  officially  regards  religion  as  a  private  matter, 
but  German  Socialism — and  the  Socialism  of  other  lands  as 
well — is  in  practice  the  bitter  enemy  of  the  organized  church. 
There  is  an  abundance  of  evidence  to  prove  this  assertion, 
but  the  following  quotations  will  suffice. 

August  Bebel,  one  of  the  founders  of  German  Socialism, 
said: 

"  We  aim  in  the  domain  of  politics  at  Republicanism,  in 
the  domain  of  economics  at  Socialism,  and  in  the  domain  of 
what  is  today  called  religion  at  Atheism."^ 

Vorwdrts,  central  organ  of  German  Socialism,  wrote  on 
July  I,  1892  : 

"We  would  fight  churches  and  preachers  even  if  the 
preachers  and  curates  were  the  most  conscientious  of  men." 

Vorwdrts  contrived  also  to  add  insult  to  the  statement  by 
using  the  word  Pjajfen  for  preachers,  a  word  having  a  con- 
temptuous implication  in  this  sense  throughout  Northern 
Germany. 

Karl  Kautsky,  for  years  one  of  the  intellectual  leaders  of 
the  Socialist  movement  in  Germany  and  one  of  its  ablest 
and  most  representative  publicists,  said:- 

"The  one-sided  battle  against  the  congregations,  as  it  is 
being  carried  on  today  in  France,  is  merely  a  pruning  of 
the  boughs  of  the  tree,  which  then  merely  flourishes  all  the 
more  strongly.  The  ax  must  be  laid  to  the  roots." 

Genosse  Dr.  Erdmann,  writing  after  the  war  had  begun, 
said: 

"We  have  no  occasion  to  conceal  the  fact  that  Social-De- 

*Quoted  by  W.  H.  Dawson  in  German  Socialism  and  Ferdinand  Lassalle, 
ch.  15. 

*Die  neue  Zeit,  1903,  vol.  i,  p.  506, 

58 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

mocracy  is  hostile  to  the  church — whether  Catholic  or  Evan- 
gelical— and  that  we  present  our  demands  with  special  de- 
cision because  we  know  that  we  shall  thus  break  the  power 
of  the  church."^ 

Vorwdrts  headlined  an  article  in  January,  191 8:  "All  re- 
ligious systems  are  enemies  of  women."  (The  Socialists 
nevertheless  had  the  effrontery  during  the  campaign  pre- 
ceding the  election  of  delegates  to  the  National  Assembly 
at  Weimar  in  January  to  put  out  a  placard  saying :  **  Women, 
protect  your  religion !  Vote  for  the  Social-Democratic  party 
of  Germany!"). 

The  initial  activities  of  the  Workmen's  and  Soldiers' 
Councils  in  Hamburg  and  Brunswick  following  the  revolu- 
tion were  correctly  described  in  a  speech  made  in  the  Nation- 
al Assembly  on  March  11,  1919,  by  Deputy  Mumm.  He  said  : 

"The  revolutionary  government  in  Hamburg  has  retained 
the  bordells  and  abolished  religious  instruction.  In  Bruns- 
wick the  school  children  of  the  capital,  1,500  in  number, 
were  assembled  in  the  Cathedral  by  the  people's  commis- 
sioners for  an  anti-Christian  Christmas  celebration." 

At  the  same  session.  Deputy  Hellmann,  a  member  of  the 
Majority  (parent)  Socialist  party,  said  in  a  speech  in  an- 
swer to  Mumm : 

"The  church,  like  all  social  institutions,  is  subject  to  con- 
stant change,  and  will  eventually  disappear." 

Quotations  like  the  preceding  could  be  multiplied  indefi- 
nitely, as  could  also  acts  consistent  with  these  anti- religious 
views.  The  first  Minister  of  Cults  {Kultusminister)  ap- 
pointed by  the  revolutionary  government  in  Prussia  was 
Adolf  Hoffmann,  a  professed  atheist,  although  this  min- 
istry has  charge  of  the  affairs  of  the  church. 

The  Socialist  literature  and  press  in  all  countries  abound 
in  anti-religious  utterances.  To  quote  one  is  to  give  a 
sample  of  all.  The  Social-D emokraten  of  Stockholm,  official 
organ  of  the  Swedish  Socialists  and  reckoned  among  the 
sanest,  ablest  and  most  conservative  of  all  Social-Demo- 
cratic press  organs,  forgets,  too,  that  religion  is  a  private 
matter.    It    reports   a   sermon   by    Archbishop    Soderblom,. 

^Sozialistische  Mpnatshefte,  1915,  vol.  i,  p.  516. 

59 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

wherein  the  speaker  declared  that  the  church  must  have 
enough  expansive  force  to  conquer  the  masses  who  are 
now  coming  to  power  in  various  lands,  and  adds  this  char- 
acteristic comment : 

"The  Archbishop  is  a  brave  man  who  is  not  afraid  to  in- 
stall a  motor  in  the  venerable  but  antiquated  skiff  from  the 
Lake  of  Genesareth.  If  only  the  boat  will  hold  him  up!" 

This  attitude  of  Socialism  is  comprehensible  and  logical, 
for  no  student  of  world  history  can  deny  that  an  established 
church  has  been  in  all  ages  and  still  is  one  of  the  strongest 
bulwarks  of  an  autocratic  state.  From  the  very  dawn  of 
organized  government,  centuries  before  the  Christian  era, 
the  priesthood,  where  it  did  not  actually  govern,  has  power- 
fully upheld  the  arm  of  civil  authority  and  property  rights. 
Even  in  democratic  England  it  teaches  the  child  to  "be  con- 
tent in  the  station  whereto  it  has  pleased  God  to  call  me,"  and 
is  thus  a  factor  in  upholding  the  class  distinctions  against 
which  Socialism's  whole  campaign  is  directed.  In  opposing 
the  church  as  an  institution  Social-Democracy  is  thus  mere- 
ly true  to  its  cardinal  tenets.  If  the  power  of  the  church  be 
destroyed  or  materially  weakened,  a  serious  blow  is  dealt  to 
the  government  which  that  church  supported.  People  who, 
at  the  command  of  the  church,  have  been  unquestioningly 
rendering  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's,  begin  to 
ask  themselves:  "But  what  things  are  Caesar's?"  And  when 
the  people  begin  seriously  to  consider  this  question,  autoc- 
racy is  doomed. 

The  effect  of  the  Socialist  campaign  against  the  church 
began  to  make  itself  felt  a  decade  or  more  before  the  war 
began.  Withdrawals  from  the  church  became  so  frequent 
that  the  government  was  seriously  concerned.  The  number 
of  those  who  termed  themselves  Dissident  (dissenter)  or 
religionslos  (without  any  religion)  increased  rapidly.  Cler- 
gymen preached  the  doctrines  of  Christ  to  empty  benches; 
religionslose  Genossen  preached  the  doctrines  of  class  war- 
fare and  disloyalty  to  state  to  Socialist  audiences  that  filled 
their  meeting-places. 

Thus  the  cancer  ate  its  way  into  the  vitals  of  the  Empire. 


60 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Germany  under  the  "Hunger- 
Blockade/' 

THE  men  whose  duty  it  was  to  take  every  measure  to 
increase  Germany's  preparedness  for  war  and  her 
ability  to  carry  on  an  extended  conflict  had  long 
realized  that  the  Empire  had  one  very  vulnerable  point. 
This  was  her  inability  to  feed  and  clothe  her  inhabitants  and 
her  consequent  dependence  on  imports  of  foodstuffs  and  raw 
materials. 

Germany  in  the  days  of  her  greatness  occupied  so  large 
a  place  in  the  sun  that  one  is  prone  to  forget  that  this  mighty 
empire  was  erected  on  an  area  much  less  than  that  of  the 
State  of  Texas.  Texas,  with  262,290  square  miles,  was 
53,666  square  miles  greater  than  the  whole  German  Empire. 
And  Germany's  population  was  two-thirds  that  of  the  en- 
tire United  States !  Germany  was,  moreover,  comparatively 
poor  in  natural  resources.  The  March  (Province)  Branden- 
burg, in  which  Berlin  is  situated,  is  little  more  than  a  sand- 
heap,  and  there  are  other  sections  whose  soil  is  poor  and 
infertile.  Nor  was  it,  like  America,  virgin  soil;  on  the  con- 
trary, it  had  been  cultivated  for  centuries.  • 

Driven  by  stern  necessity,  the  Germans  became  the  most 
intelligent  and  successful  farmers  of  the  world.  Their  aver- 
age yields  of  all  crops  per  acre  exceeded  those  of  any  other 
country,  and  were  from  one  and  a  half  to  two  times  as  large 
as  the  average  yield  in  the  United  States.  The  German 
farmer  raised  two  and  one  half  times  more  potatoes  per 
acre  than  the  average  for  the  United  States.  He  was  aided 
by  an  adequate  supply  of  cheap  farm  labor  and  by  unlimited 
supplies  of  potash  at  low  prices,  since  Germany,  among  her 

61 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

few  important  natural  resources,  possessed  a  virtual  mo- 
nopoly of  the  world's  potash  supply. 

Try  as  they  would,  however,  the  German  farmers  could 
not  feed  and  clothe  more  than  about  forty  of  Germany's 
nearly  seventy  millions.  Even  this  was  a  tremendous  ac- 
complishment, which  can  be  the  better  appreciated  if  one 
attempts  to  picture  the  State  of  Texas  feeding  and  clothing 
four  of  every  ten  inhabitants  of  the  United  States.  Strenuous 
efforts  were  made  by  the  German  Government  to  increase 
this  proportion.  Moorlands  were  reclaimed  and  extensive 
projects  for  such  reclamation  were  being  prepared  when  the 
war  came.  The  odds  were  too  great,  howev^er,  and  the  steady 
shift  of  population  toward  the  cities  made  it  increasingly 
difficult  to  cultivate  all  the  available  land  and  likewise  in- 
creased the  amount  of  food  required,  since  there  is  an  in- 
evitable wastage  in  transportation.  What  this  shift  of  popu- 
lation amounted  to  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  whereas 
the  aggregate  population  of  the  rural  districts  in  1 87 1  was 
63.9  per  cent  of  the  total  population,  it  was  but  40  per  cent 
in  1 910.  During  the  same  period  the  percentage  of  the  to- 
tal population  living  in  cities  of  100,000  population  or  over 
had  increased  from  4.8  to  21.3. 

In  the  most  favorable  circumstances  about  three-sevenths 
of  the  food  needed  by  Germany  must  be  imported.  The  gov- 
ernment had  realized  that  a  war  on  two  fronts  would  in- 
volve a  partial  blockade,  but  neither  the  German  Govern- 
ment nor  any  other  government  did  or  could  foresee  that  a 
war  would  come  which  would  completely  encircle  Germany 
in  effect  and  make  an  absolute  blockade  possible.  Even  if 
this  had  been  realized  it  would  have  made  no  essential  dif- 
ference, for  it  must  always  have  remained  impossible  for 
Germany  to  become  self-supporting. 

Another  factor  increased  the  difficulties  of  provisioning 
the  people.  The  war,  by  taking  hundreds  of  able-bodied  men 
and  the  best  horses  from  the  farms,  made  it  from  the  begin- 
ning impossible  to  farm  as  intensively  as  under  normal  con- 
ditions, and  resulted  even  in  the  second  summer  of  the  war 
in  a  greatly  reduced  acreage  of  important  crops.  Livestock, 
depleted  greatly  by  slaughtering  and  by  lack  of  fodder,  no 

62 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

longer  produced  as  much  manure  as  formerly,  and  one  of 
the  main  secrets  of  the  intelligent  farming-methods  of  the 
Germans  was  the  lavish  use  of  fertilizer.  And  thus,  at  a 
time  when  even  the  maximum  production  would  have  been 
insufficient,  a  production  far  below  the  normal  average  was 
being  secured. 

Germany's  dependence  on  importations  is  shown  by  the 
import  statistics  for  191 3.  The  figures  are  in  millions  of 
marks. 

Cereals  1037. 

Eggs  188.2 

Fruits  148.8 

Fish  135-9 

Wheaten  products  130.3 

Animal  fats  118.9 

Butter  1 18.7 

Rice  103.9 

Southern  fruits  101.2 

Meats  81.4 

Live  animals  291.6 

Coffee  219.7 

Cacao  67.1 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  importations  of  cereals 
(bread-stuffs  and  maize)  alone  amounted  to  roughly  $260,- 
000,000,  without  the  further  item  of  "wheaten  products"  for 
$32,500,000. 

Fodder  for  animals  was  also  imported  in  large  quantities. 
The  figures  for  cereals  include  large  amounts  of  Indian 
corn,  and  oilcakes  were  also  imported  in  the  same  year  to 
the  value  of  more  than  $29,600,000. 

Germany  was  no  more  able  to  clothe  and  shoe  her  inhabi- 
tants than  she  was  to  feed  them.  Further  imports  for  191 3 
vi^ere  (in  millions  of  marks)  : 

Cotton      -  664. 1 

Wool  5 1 1.7 

Hides  and  skins  672.4 

Cotton  yarn  116.2 

63 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

Flax  and  hemp  II4-4 

Woolen  yarn  1 08. 

Imports  of  chemicals  and  drugs  exceeded  $105,000,000; 
of  copper,  $86,000,000;  of  rubber  and  gutta-percha,  $36,- 
500,000;  of  leaf-tobacco,  $43,500,000;  of  jute,  $23,500,000; 
of  petroleum,  $17,400,000. 

Of  foodstuffs,  Germany  exported  only  sugar  and  vegeta- 
ble oils  in  any  considerable  quantities.  The  primarily  in- 
dustrial character  of  the  country  was  evidenced  by  her  ex- 
portations  of  manufactures,  which  amounted  in  191 3  to  a 
total  of  $1,598,950,000,  and  even  to  make  these  exportations 
possible  she  had  imported  raw  materials  aggregating  more 
than  $1,250,000,000. 

The  war  came,  and  Germany  was  speedily  thrown  on  her 
own  resources.  In  the  first  months  various  neutrals,  including 
the  United  States,  succeeded  in  sending  some  foodstuffs  and 
raw  materials  into  the  beleaguered  land,  but  the  blockade 
rapidly  tightened  until  only  the  Scandinavian  countries, 
Holland,  and  Switzerland  could  not  be  reached  directly  by 
it.  Sweden,  with  a  production  insufficient  for  her  own  needs, 
soon  found  it  necessary  to  stop  all  exports  to  Germany  except 
of  certain  so-called  "compensation  articles,"  consisting 
chiefly  of  paper  pulp  and  iron  ore.  A  continuance  of  these 
exports  was  necessary,  since  Germany  required  payment  in 
wares  for  articles  which  Sweden  needed  and  could  not  secure 
elsewhere.  The  same  was  true  of  the  other  neutral  countries 
mentioned.  Denmark  continued  to  the  last  to  export  food- 
stuffs to  Germany,  but  she  exported  the  same  quantity  of 
these  wares  to  England.  All  the  exports  of  foodstuffs  and 
raw  materials  from  all  the  neutrals  during  the  war  were  but 
a  drop  in  the  bucket  compared  with  the  vast  needs  of  a 
people  of  seventy  millions  waging  war,  and  they  played  a 
negligible  part  in  its  course. 

Although  the  German  Government  was  confident  that  the 
war  would  last  but  a  few  months,  its  first  food-conservation 
order  followed  on  the  heels  of  the  mobilization.  The  govern- 
ment took  over  all  supplies  of  breadstuffs  and  established  a 
weekly  ration  of  four  metric  pounds  per  person  (about  sev- 
enty ounces).  Other  similar  measures  followed  fast.  Meat 

64 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

was  rationed,  the  weekly  allowance  varying  from  six  to  nine 
ounces  in  different  parts  of  the  Empire.^  The  Germans  were 
not  great  meat-eaters,  except  in  the  cities.  The  average 
peasant  ate  meat  on  Sundays,  and  only  occasionally  in  the 
middle  of  the  week,  and  the  ration  fixed  would  have  been 
adequate  but  for  one  thing.  This  was  the  disappearance  of 
fats,  particularly  lard,  from  the  market.  The  Germans  con- 
sumed great  quantities  of  fats,  which  took  the  place  of  meat 
to  a  large  extent.  They  now  found  themselves  limited  to  two 
ounces  of  butter,  lard,  and  margarine  together  per  week. 
Pork,  bacon,  and  ham  were  unobtainable,  and  the  other 
meats  which  made  up  the  weekly  ration  were  lean  and 
stringy,  for  there  were  no  longer  American  oilcakes  and 
maize  for  the  cattle,  and  the  government  had  forbidden  the 
use  of  potatoes,  rye  or  wheat  as  fodder.  There  had  been 
some  twenty-four  million  swine  in  Germany  at  the  outbreak 
of  the  war.  There  were  but  four  million  left  at  the  end.  Cattle 
were  butchered  indiscriminately  because  there  was  no  fod- 
der, and  the  survivors,  undernourished,  gave  less  and  poorer 
meat  per  unit  than  normally. 

How  great  a  part  milk  pays  in  the  feeding  of  any  people 
is  not  generally  realized.  In  the  United  States  recent  esti- 
mates are  that  milk  in  its  various  forms  makes  up  no  less 
than  ninteen  per  cent  of  the  entire  food  consumed.  The  per- 
centage was  doubtless  much  greater  in  Germany,  where,  as 
in  all  European  countries,  much  more  cheese  is  eaten  per 
capita  than  in  America.  What  the  German  farmer  calls 
Kraftjutter,  such  concentrated  fodder  as  oilcakes,  maize- 
meal,  etc.,  had  to  be  imported,  since  none  of  these  things 
were  produced  in  Germany.  The  annual  average  of  such 
importations  in  the  years  just  preceding  the  war  reached 
more  than  five  million  metric  tons,  and  these  importations 
were  virtually  all  cut  off  before  the  end  of  191 7. 

The  result  was  that  the  supply  of  milk  fell  off  by  nearly 
one  half.  Only  very  young  children,  invalids,  women  in 
childbed  and  the  aged  were  permitted  to  have  any  milk  at 


^This  allowance  had  dropped  to  less  than  five  ounces  in  Prussia  in  the 
last  months  of  the  war. 

65 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

all,  and  that  only  in  insufficient  quantities  and  of  low  grade. 
The  city  of  Chemnitz  boasted  of  the  fact  that  it  had  been 
able  at  all  times  to  supply  a  quarter  of  a  liter  (less  than  half 
a  pint!)  daily  to  every  child  under  eight  That  this  should 
be  considered  worth  boasting  about  indicates  dimly  what 
the  conditions  must  have  been  elsewhere. 

The  value  of  eggs  as  protein-furnishing  food  is  well 
known,  but  even  here  Germany  was  dependent  upon  other 
countries — chiefly  Russia — for  two-fifths  of  her  entire  con- 
sumption. Available  imports  dropped  to  a  tenth  of  the  pre- 
war figures,  and  the  domestic  production  fell  off  greatly,  the 
hens  having  been  killed  for  food  and  also  because  of  lack  of 
fodder. 

Restriction  followed  upon  restriction,  and  every  change 
was  for  the  worse.  The  Kriegsbrot  (war  bread)  was  di- 
rected to  be  made  with  twenty  per  cent  of  potatoes  or  pota- 
to flour  and  rye.  Barley  flour  was  later  added.  Wheat  and 
rye  are  ordinarily  milled  out  around  70  to  75  per  cent,  but 
were  now  milled  to  94  per  cent.  The  bread-ration  was  re- 
duced. The  sugar-ration  was  set  at  i^  pounds  monthly. 
American  housewives  thought  themselves  severely  restricted 
when  sugar  was  sold  in  pound  packages  and  they  could  buy 
as  much  heavy  molasses,  corn  syrups  and  maple  syrup  as  they 
desired,  but  the  i^ -pound  allowance  of  the  German  house- 
wife represented  the  sum  total  of  all  sweets  available  per 
month. 

By  the  autumn  of  1916  conditions  had  become  all  but 
desperate.  It  is  difficult  for  one  who  has  not  experienced  it 
personally  to  realize  what  it  means  to  subsist  without  rice, 
cereals  such  as  macaroni,  oatmeal,  or  butter,  lard  or  oil  (for 
two  ounces  of  these  articles  are  little  better  than  none)  ;  to 
be  limited  to  one  ^^^  each  three  weeks,  or  to  five  pounds  of 
potatoes  weekly ;  to  have  no  milk  for  kitchen  use,  and  even 
no  spices ;  to  steep  basswood  blossoms  as  a  substitute  for  tea 
and  use  dandelion  roots  or  roasted  acorns  as  coffee  for  which 
there  is  neither  milk  nor  sugar,  and  only  a  limited  supply 
of  saccharine.  Germany  had  been  a  country  of  many  and 
cheap  varieties  of  cheese,  and  these  took  the  place  of  meat 

66 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

to  a  great  extent.  Cheese  disappeared  entirely  in  August, 
1 91 6,  and  could  not  again  be  had. 

In  common  with  most  European  peoples,  the  Germans 
had  eaten  great  quantities  of  fish,  both  fresh  and  salted  or 
smoked.  The  bulk  of  the  salted  and  smoked  fish  had  come 
from  Scandinavia  and  England,  and  the  blockade  cut  off 
this  supply.  The  North  Sea  was  in  the  war-zone,  and  the 
German  fishermen  could  not  venture  out  to  the  good  fishing- 
grounds.  The  German  fishermen  of  the  Baltic  had,  like  their 
North  Seacoast  brethren,  been  called  to  the  colors  in  great 
numbers.  Their  nets  could  not  be  repaired  or  renewed  be- 
cause there  was  no  linen  available.  Fresh  fish  disappeared 
from  view,  and  supplies  of  preserved  fish  diminished  so 
greatly  that  it  was  possible  to  secure  a  small  portion  only 
every  third  or  fourth  week.  Even  this  trifling  ration  could 
not  always  be  maintained. 

No  German  will  ever  forget  the  terrible  Kohlruhenwinter 
(turnip  winter)  of  1916-17.  It  took  its  name  from  the  fact 
that  potatoes  were  for  many  weeks  unobtainable,  and  the 
only  substitute  that  could  be  had  was  coarse  fodder-turnips. 
The  lack  of  potatoes  and  other  vegetables  increased  the  con- 
sumption of  bread,  and  even  in  the  case  of  the  better-situ- 
ated families  the  ration  was  insufficient.  The  writer  has 
seen  his  own  children  come  into  the  house  from  their  play, 
hungry  and  asking  for  a  slice  of  bread,  and  go  back  to  their 
games  with  a  piece  of  turnip  because  there  was  no  bread  to 
give  them.  The  situation  of  hard  manual  laborers  was  nat- 
urally even  worse. 

The  turnip-winter  was  one  of  unusual  severity,  and  it 
was  marked  by  a  serious  shortage  of  fuel.  Thus  the  suffer- 
ings from  the  cold  were  added  to  the  pangs  of  hunger.  There 
was  furthermore  already  an  insufficiency  of  warm  clothing. 
Articles  of  wear  were  strictly  rationed,  and  the  children  of 
the  poorer  classes  were  inadequately  clad. 

The  minimum  number  of  calories  necessary  for  the  nour- 
ishment of  the  average  individual  is,  according  to  dietetic 
authorities,  3,000,  and  even  this  falls  some  300  short  of  a 
full  ration.  Yet  as  early  as  December,  191 6,  the  caloric  value 
of  the  complete  rations  of  the  German  was  1,344,  and,  if 

67 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

the  indigestibility  and  monotony  of  the  fare  be  taken  into 
account,  even  less.  To  be  continuously  hungry,  to  rise  from 
the  table  hungry,  to  go  to  bed  hungry,  was  the  universal  ex- 
perience of  all  but  the  very  well-to-do.  Not  only  was  the 
food  grossly  insufficient  in  quantity  and  of  poor  quality,  but 
the  deadly  monotony  of  the  daily  fare  also  contributed  to 
break  down  the  strength  and,  eventually,  the  very  morale 
of  the  people.  No  fats  being  available,  it  was  impossible  to 
fry  anything.  From  day  to  day  the  Germans  sat  down  to 
boiled  potatoes,  boiled  turnips  and  boiled  cabbage,  with  an 
occasional  piece  of  stringy  boiled  beef  or  mutton,  and  with 
the  coarse  and  indigestible  Kricgsbrot,  in  which  fodder- 
turnips  had  by  this  time  been  substituted  for  potatoes.  The 
quantity  of  even  such  food  was  limited. 

A  little  fruit  would  have  varied  this  diet  and  been  of 
great  dietetic  value,  but  there  was  no  fruit.  Wo  bleibt  das 
Obst  (what  has  become  of  the  fruit!)  cried  the  people,  voic- 
ing unconsciously  the  demands  of  their  bodies.  The  govern- 
ment, which  had  imported  $62,500,000  worth  of  fruit  in 
1913,  could  do  nothing.  The  comparatively  few  apples  raised 
in  Germany  were  mixed  with  pumpkins  and  carrots  to  make 
what  was  by  courtesy  called  marmalade,  and  most  of  this 
went  to  the  front,  which  also  secured  most  of  the  smaller 
fruits.  A  two-pound  can  of  preserved  vegetables  or  fruits 
was  sold  to  each  family — not  person — at  Christmas  time. 
This  had  to  suffice  for  the  year. 

A  delegation  of  women  called  on  the  mayor  of  Schone- 
berg,  one  of  the  municipalities  of  Greater  Berlin,  and  de- 
clared that  they  and  their  families  were  hungry  and  must 
have  more  to  eat. 

"  You  will  not  be  permitted  to  starve,  but  you  must  hun- 
ger," said  the  mayor. -^ 

The  other  privations  attendant  upon  hunger  also  played 
a  great  part  in  breaking  down  the  spirit  of  the  people.  In 
order  to  secure  even  the  official  food-pittance,  it  was  neces- 
sary to  stand  in  queues  for  hours  at  a  time.  The  trifling  al- 

^The  mayor's  statement  contains  in  German  a  play  on  words :  Ihr  sollt 
nicht  verhungern,  aber  hungem  musst  Ihr. 

6^ 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

lowance  of  soap  consisted  of  a  substitute  made  largely  of 
saponaceous  clay.  Starch  was  unobtainable,  and  there  is  a 
deep  significance  in  the  saying,  "to  take  the  starch  out  of 
one."  The  enormous  consumption  of  tobacco  at  the  front 
caused  a  serious  shortage  at  home,  and  this  added  another 
straw  to  the  burdens  of  the  male  part  of  the  population.  The 
shortage  of  cereals  brought  in  its  wake  a  dilution  of  the 
once  famous  German  beer  until  it  was  little  but  colored  and 
charged  water,  without  any  nourishment  whatever. 

The  physical  effects  of  undernutrition  and  malnutrition 
made  themselves  felt  in  a  manner  which  brought  them  home 
to  every  man.  Working-capacity  dropped  to  half  the  normal, 
or  even  less.  Mortality  increased  by  leaps  and  bounds,  par- 
ticularly among  the  children  and  the  aged.  The  death  rate 
of  children  from  i  to  5  years  of  age  increased  50  per  cent; 
that  of  children  from  5  to  15  by  55  per  cent.  In  191 7  alone 
this  increased  death  rate  among  children  from  i  to  1 5  years 
meant  an  excess  of  deaths  over  the  normal  of  more  than 
50,000  in  the  whole  Empire.  In  the  year  191 3,  40,374  deaths 
from  tuberculosis  were  reported  in  German  municipalities 
of  15,000  inhabitants  or  more.  The  same  municipalities  re- 
ported 41,800  deaths  from  tuberculosis  in  the  first  six  months 
of  1918,  an  increase  of  more  than  100  per  cent.  In  Berlin 
alone  the  death  rate  for  all  causes  jumped  from  13.48  per 
thousand  for  the  first  eight  months  of  191 3  to  20.05  ^^^  the 
first  eight  months  of  191 8. 

According  to  a  report  laid  before  the  United  Medical 
Societies  in  Berlin  on  December  18,  191 8,  the  "hunger  block- 
ade" was  responsible  for  763,000  deaths  in  the  Empire. 
These  figures  are  doubtless  largely  based  on  speculation  and 
probably  too  high,  but  one  need  not  be  a  physician  to  know 
that  years  of  malnutrition  and  undernutrition,  especially  in 
the  case  of  children  and  the  aged,  mean  a  greatly  increased 
death  rate  and  particularly  a  great  increase  of  tuberculosis. 
In  addition  to  the  excess  deaths  alleged  by  the  German 
authorities  to  be  directly  due  to  the  blockade,  there  were 
nearly  150,000  deaths  from  Spanish  influenza  in  1 91 8.  These 
have  not  been  reckoned  among  the  763,000,  but  it  must  be 

69 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

assumed  that  many  would  have  withstood  the  attack  had 
they  not  been  weakened  by  the  privations  of  the  four  war- 
years. 

The  enthusiasm  that  had  carried  the  people  through  the 
beginnings  of  their  privations  cooled  gradually.  No  moral 
sentiments,  even  the  most  exalted,  can  prevail  against  hun- 
ger. Starving  men  will  fight  or  steal  to  get  a  crust  of  bread, 
just  as  a  drowning  man  clutches  at  a  straw.  There  have 
been  men  in  history  whose  patriotism  or  devotion  to  an  idea 
has  withstood  the  test  of  torture  and  starvation,  but  that 
these  are  the  exception  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  history  has 
seen  fit  to  record  their  deeds.  The  average  man  is  not  made 
of  such  stern  stuff.  Mens  sana  in  corpore  sano  means  plainly 
that  there  can  be  no  healthy  mind  without  a  healthy  body. 
Hungry  men  and  women  who  see  their  children  die  for  want 
of  food  naturally  feel  a  bitter  resentment  which  must  find 
an  object.  They  begin  to  ask  themselves  whether,  after  all, 
these  sacrifices  have  been  necessary,  and  to  what  end  they 
have  served. 

The  first  answer  to  the  question.  What  has  compelled 
these  sacrifices  was,  of  course,  for  everybody,  The  war.  But 
who  is  responsible  for  The  War?  Germany's  enemies,  an- 
swered a  part  of  the  people. 

But  there  were  two  categories  of  Germans  whose  answer 
was  another.  On  the  one  side  were  a  few  independent  think- 
ers who  had  decided  that  Germany  herself  bore  at  least  a 
large  share  of  the  responsibility ;  on  the  other  side  were 
those  who  had  been  taught  by  their  leaders  that  all  wars  are 
the  work  of  the  capitalistic  classes,  and  that  existing  gov- 
ernments everywhere  are  obstacles  to  the  coming  of  a  true 
universal  brotherhood  of  man.  These  doctrines  had  been 
forgotten  by  even  the  Socialist  leaders  in  the  enthusiasm  of 
the  opening  days  of  the  struggle,  but  they  had  merely  lain 
dormant,  and  now,  as  a  result  of  sufferings  and  revolution- 
ary propaganda  by  radical  Socialists,  they  awakened.  And 
in  awakening  they  spread  to  a  class  which  had  heretofore 
been  comparatively  free  from  their  contagion. 

Socialism,  and  more  especially  that  radical  Socialism 
which  finds  its  expression  in  Bolshevism,  Communism  and 

70 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

similar  emanations,  is  especially  the  product  of  discontent, 
and  discontent  is  engendered  by  suffering.  The  whole  Ger- 
man people  had  suffered  terribly,  but  two  categories  of  one 
mighty  class  had  undergone  the  greatest  hardships.  These 
were  the  Unterheamten  and  the  Mittelbeamten,  the  govern- 
ment employees  of  the  lowest  and  the  middle  classes.  This 
was  the  common  experience  of  all  belligerent  countries  ex- 
cept the  United  States,  which  never  even  remotely  realized 
anything  of  what  the  hardships  of  war  mean.  Wages  of  the 
laboring  classes  generally  kept  pace  with  the  increasing 
prices  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  and  in  many  instances  out- 
stripped them.  But  the  government,  whose  necessities  were 
thus  exploited  by  the  makers  of  ammunition,  the  owners  of 
small  machine-shops  and  the  hundreds  of  other  categories 
of  workers  whose  product  was  required  for  the  conduct  of 
the  war,  could  not — or  at  least  did  not — grant  corresponding 
increases  of  salary  to  its  civil  servants.  The  result  was  a 
curious  social  shift,  particularly  observable  in  the  restaurants 
and  resorts  of  the  better  class,  whose  clientele,  even  in  the 
second  year  of  the  war,  had  come  to  be  made  up  chiefly  of 
men  and  women  whose  bearing  and  dress  showed  them  to 
be  manual  workers.  The  slender  remuneration  of  the  Beam- 
ten  had  fallen  so  far  behind  the  cost  of  living  that  they  could 
neither  frequent  these  resorts  nor  yet  secure  more  than  a 
bare  minimum  of  necessaries.  The  result  was  that  thousands 
of  these  loyal  men  and  women,  rendered  desperate  by  their 
sufferings,  began  in  their  turn  to  ponder  the  doctrines  which 
they  had  heard,  but  rejected  in  more  prosperous  times.  Thus 
was  the  ground  further  prepared  for  the  coming  of  the  revo- 
lution. 

There  was  yet  another  factor  which  played  a  great  part 
in  increasing  the  discontent  of  the  masses.  Not  even  the 
genius  of  the  German  Government  for  organization  could 
assure  an  equitable  distribution  of  available  foodstuffs.  Ex- 
cept where  the  supply  could  be  seized  or  controlled  at  the 
source,  as  in  the  case  of  breadstuffs  and  one  or  two  other 
products,  the  rationing  system  broke  down.  The  result  of  the 
government's  inability  to  get  control  of  necessaries  of  life 
was  the  so-called  Schleichhandel,  literally  "sneak  trade," 

71 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

the  illegitimate  dealing  in  rationed  wares.  Heavy  penalties 
were  imposed  for  this  trade,  applicable  alike  to  buyer  and 
seller,  and  many  prosecutions  were  conducted,  but  to  no 
avail.  The  extent  of  the  practice  is  indicated  by  a  remark 
made  by  the  police-president  of  a  large  German  city,  who 
declared  that  if  every  person  who  had  violated  the  law  re- 
garding illegitimate  trade  in  foodstuffs  were  to  be  arrested, 
the  whole  German  people  would  find  itself  in  jail. 

It  has  often  been  declared  that  money  would  buy  anything 
in  Germany  throughout  the  war.  This  statement  is  exag- 
gerated, but  it  is  a  fact  that  the  well-to-do  could  at  all  times 
secure  most  of  the  necessaries  and  some  of  the  luxuries  of 
life.  But  the  prices  were  naturally  so  high  as  to  be  out  of  the 
reach  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people.  Butter  cost  as  much 
as  $8  a  pound  in  this  illegitimate  trade,  meat  about  the 
same,  eggs  40  to  50  cents  apiece,  and  other  articles  in  pro- 
portion. The  poorer  people — and  this,  in  any  country,  means 
the  great  majority — could  not  pay  these  prices.  Themselves 
forced  to  go  hungry  and  see  their  children  hunger  while  the 
wealthy  bourgeoisie  had  a  comparative  abundance,  they 
were  further  embittered  against  war  and  against  all  govern- 
ments responsible  for  war,  including  their  own. 

The  German  soldiers  at  the  front  had  fared  well  by  Ger- 
man standards.  In  the  third  year  of  the  war  the  writer  saw 
at  the  front  vast  stores  of  ham,  bacon,  beans,  peas,  lentils 
and  other  wares  that  had  not  been  available  to  the  civil 
population  since  the  war  began.  Soldiers  home  on  furlough 
complained  of  being  continuously  hungry  and  returned  to 
the  lines  gladly  because  of  the  adequate  rations  there. 

With  the  coming  of  the  fourth  year,  however,  conditions 
began  to  grow  bad  even  at  the  front,  and  the  winter  of  191 7- 
18  brought  a  marked  decrease  of  rations,  both  in  quantity 
and  quality.  Cavalrymen  and  soldiers  belonging  to  munition 
or  work  columns  ate  the  potatoes  issued  for  their  horses. 
They  ground  in  their  coffee-mills  their  horses'  scant  rations 
of  barley  and  made  pancakes.  A  high  military  oflficial 
who  took  part  in  the  drive  for  the  English  Channel  that 
started  in  March,  1 91 8,  assured  the  writer  that  the  chief 
reason  for  the  failure  to  reach  the  objective  was  that  the 

72 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

German  soldiers  stopped  to  eat  the  provisions  found  in  the 
enemy  camps,  and  could  not  be  made  to  resume  the  advance 
until  they  had  satisfied  their  hunger  and  assured  themselves 
that  none  of  the  captured  stores  had  been  overlooked.  Lu- 
dendorfT,  hearing  of  this,  is  said  to  have  declared:  "Then 
it's  all  over."  This,  while  probably  untrue,  would  have  been 
a  justified  and  prophetic  summing-up  of  the  situation. 

Not  only  were  the  soldiers  hungry  by  this  time,  but  they 
were  insufficiently  clad.  Their  boots  were  without  soles,  and 
they  had  neither  socks  nor  the  Fusslappen  (bandages)  which 
most  of  them  preferred  to  wear  instead  of  socks.  A  shirt 
issued  from  the  military  stores  in  the  summer  of  191 8  to  a 
German  soldier-friend  of  the  writer  was  a  woman's  ribbed 
shirt,  cut  low  in  the  neck  and  gathered  with  a  ribbon. 

The  military  reverses  of  this  summer  thus  found  a  sol- 
diery hungry  and  ill-clad,  dispirited  by  complaints  from 
their  home-folk  of  increasing  privations,  and,  as  we  shall 
see  in  the  following  chapter,  subjected  to  a  revolutionary 
propaganda  of  enormous  extent  by  radical  German  Social- 
ists and  by  the  enemy. 


73 


CHAPTER  V. 
Internationalism  at  Work. 

No  people  ever  entered  upon  a  war  with  more  en- 
thusiasm or  a  firmer  conviction  of  the  justice  of 
their  cause  than  did  the  Germans.  Beset  for  genera- 
tions on  all  sides  by  potential  enemies,  they  had  lived  under 
the  constant  threat  of  impending  war,  and  the  events  of  the 
first  days  of  August,  191 4,  were  hailed  as  that  "end  of 
terror"  {ein  Ende  mit  Schrecken)  which,  according  to  an 
old  proverb,  was  preferable  to  "terror  without  end" 
(Schrecken  ohne  Ende).  The  teachings  of  internationalism 
were  forgotten  for  the  moment  even  by  the  Socialists.  The 
veteran  August  Bebel,  one  of  the  founders  of  German 
Socialism,  had  never  been  able  entirely  to  overcome  an  in- 
born feeling  of  nationalism,  and  had  said  in  one  famous 
speech  in  the  Reichstag  that  it  was.  conceivable  that  a  situa- 
tion could  arise  where  even  he  would  shoulder  die  alte 
Biichse  (the  old  musket)  and  go  to  the  front  to  defend  the 
Fatherland. 

Such  a  situation  seemed  even  to  the  extremest  interna- 
tionalists to  have  arisen.  At  the  memorable  meeting  in  the 
White  Hall  of  the  royal  palace  in  Berlin  on  August  4,  1914, 
the  Socialist  members  of  the  Reichstag  were  present  and 
joined  the  members  of  the  bourgeois  parties  in  swearing  to 
support  the  Fatherland.  The  Kaiser  retracted  his  reference 
to  vaterlandslose  Gesellen.  "  I  no  longer  know  any  parties," 
he  said.  "  I  know  only  Germans."  Hugo  Haase,  one  of  the 
Socialist  leaders  and  one  of  the  small  group  of  men  whose 
efforts  later  brought  about  the  German  revolution  and  the 
downfall  of  the  empire  and  dynasty,  was  carried  away  like 
his  colleagues  by  the  enthusiasm  of  the  moment.  He  prom- 
ised in  advance  the  support  of  his  party  to  the  empire's  war 
measures,  and  when,  a  few  hours  later,  the  first  war-appro- 

75 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

priation  measure,  carrying  five  billion  marks,  was  laid  be- 
fore the  deputies,  the  Socialists  voted  for  it  without  a  dis- 
senting voice,  and  later  joined  for  the  first  time  in  their 
history  in  the  Kaiserhoch,  the  expression  of  loyalty  to  mon- 
arch and  country  with  which  sessions  of  the  Reichstag  were 
always  closed. 

Nothing  could  testify  more  strongly  to  the  universal  be- 
lief that  Germany  was  called  upon  to  fight  a  defensive  and 
just  war.  For  not  only  had  the  Socialist  teachings,  as  we 
have  seen,  denounced  all  warfare  as  in  the  interests  of  capi- 
tal alone,  but  their  party  in  the  Reichstag  included  one  man 
whose  anti-war  convictions  had  already  resulted  in  his  being 
punished  for  this  expression.  This  was  Dr.  Karl  Liebknecht, 
who  had  been  tried  at  the  Supreme  Court  in  Leipsic  in  1907 
on  a  charge  of  high  treason  for  publishing  an  anti-military 
pamphlet,  convicted  of  a  lesser  degree  of  treason  and  sen- 
tenced to  eighteen  months'  imprisonment.  Haase  himself 
had  bitterly  attacked  militarism  and  war  in  a  speech  in  the 
Reichstag  in  April,  191 3,  in  opposition  to  the  government's 
military  bills,  and  only  his  parliamentary  immunity  pro- 
tected him  from  sharing  Liebknecht's  fate.  One  of  the 
strongest  defenders  of  the  war  in  Bavaria  was  Kurt  Eisner, 
already  an  intellectual  Bolshevist  and  Communist,  who  had 
been  compelled  earlier  to  leave  the  editorial  staff  of  the 
Vorivdrts  because  of  his  far-going  radicalism  and  dreamy 
impracticality. 

All  these  men  were  subsequently  bitterly  attacked  by  So- 
cialists of  enemy  lands  for  their  surrender  of  principles.  The 
feeling  that  dictated  these  attacks  is  comprehensible,  but 
adherents  of  the  my-country-right-or-wrong  brand  of  pa- 
triotism are  precluded  from  making  such  attacks.  It  cannot 
be  permitted  to  any  one  to  blow  hot  and  cold  at  the  same 
time.  He  may  not  say :  "  I  shall  defend  my  country  right  or 
wrong,  but  you  may  defend  yours  only  if  it  is  right."  To 
state  the  proposition  thus  baldly  is  to  destroy  it.  Unquestion- 
ing patriotism  is  applicable  everywhere  or  nowhere,  and  its 
supporters  cannot  logically  condemn  its  manifestation  by 
the  German  Socialists  in  the  opening  months  of  the  World 
War. 

76 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

The  first  defection  in  the  ranks  of  the  Socialists  carne  in 
the  second  war  session  of  the  Reichstag  in  December,  1914, 
when  Liebknecht,  alone  among  all  the  members  of  the  house, 
refused  to  vote  for  the  government's  war-credit  of  five  bil- 
lion marks.  Amid  scenes  of  indignant  excitement  he  tried  to 
denounce  the  war  as  imperialistic  and  capitalistic,  but  was 
not  permitted  to  finish  his  remarks. 

There  has  been  observable  throughout  the  allied  countries 
and  particularly  in  America  a  distinct  tendency  to  regard 
Liebknecht  as  a  hero  and  a  man  of  great  ability  and  moral 
courage.  But  he  was  neither  the  one  nor  the  other.  He  was  a 
man  of  great  energy  which  was  exclusively  devoted  to  de- 
stroying, and  without  any  constructive  ability  whatever, 
and  what  was  regarded  as  moral  courage  in  him  was  rather 
the  indifferent  recklessness  of  fanaticism  combined  with 
great  egotism  and  personal  vanity.  Liebknecht's  career  was 
in  a  great  degree  determined  by  his  feeling  that  he  was 
destined  to  carry  on  the  work  and  fulfil  the  mission  of  his 
father,  Wilhelm  Liebknecht,  the  friend  of  Marx,  Bebel  and 
Engels,  and  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Socialist  party  in 
Germany.  But  he  lacked  his  father's  mental  ability,  common- 
sense  and  balance,  and  the  result  was  that  he  became  the 
enfant  terrible  of  his  party  at  an  age  when  the  designation 
applied  almost  literally. 

Educated  as  a  lawyer,  the  younger  Liebknecht  devoted 
himself  almost  exclusively  to  politics  and  to  writing  on  po- 
litical subjects.  Last  elected  to  the  Reichstag  from  the  Pots- 
dam district  in  1912,  he  distinguished  himself  in  April,  1913, 
by  a  speech  in  which  he  charged  the  Krupp  directors  with 
corrupting  officials  and  military  officers.  He  also  named  the 
Kaiser  and  Crown  Prince  in  his  speech.  The  result  was  an 
investigation  and  trial  of  the  army  oflficers  involved.  In 
making  these  charges  Liebknecht  performed  a  patriotic 
service,  but  even  here  his  personal  vanity  asserted  itself. 
Before  making  the  speech  he  sent  word  to  the  newspapers 
that  he  would  have  something  interesting  to  say,  and  re- 
quested a  full  attendance  of  reporters.  He  delayed  his  speech 
after  the  announced  time  because  the  press-gallery  was  not 
yet  full. 

77 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

A  consistent  enemy  of  war,  he  attacked  the  international 
armament  industry  in  a  speech  in  the  Reichstag  on  May  lo, 
1 9 14.  In  the  following  month  he  charged  the  Prussian  au- 
thorities with  trafficking  in  titles.  But  in  all  the  record  of 
his  public  activities — and  he  was  forty-three  years  old  when 
the  war  broke  out — one  will  search  in  vain  for  any  construc- 
tive work  or  for  any  evidence  of  statesmanlike  qualities. 

Liebknecht  visited  America  in  1910.  When  he  returned 
to  Germany  he  attacked  America  in  both  speeches  and  writ- 
ings as  the  most  imperialistic  and  capitalistic  of  all  countries. 
He  declared  that  in  no  European  country  would  the  police 
dare  handle  citizens  as  they  did  in  America,  and  asserted 
that  the  American  Constitution  is  "not  worth  the  paper  it 
is  written  upon."  In  Berlin  on  December  17,  1918,  he  said 
to  the  writer: 

"The  war  has  proved  that  your  constitution  is  no  better 
today  than  it  was  when  I  expressed  my  opinion  of  it  nine 
years  ago.  Your  people  have  been  helpless  in  the  face  of  it 
and  were  drawn  into  war  just  like  the  other  belligerents.  The 
National  Assembly  (Weimar)  now  planned  will  bequeath 
to  us  a  charter  equally  as  worthless.  The  workingmen  are 
opposed  to  the  perpetuation  of  private  ownership." 

In  the  face  of  this,  it  must  be  assumed  that  American 
glorification  of  Liebknecht  rests  upon  ignorance  of  the  man 
and  of  what  principles  he  supported. 

For  a  few  months  after  the  beginning  of  the  war  Lieb- 
knecht stood  almost  alone  in  his  opposition.  As  late  as 
September,  1914,  we  see  Haase  heading  a  mission  of  So- 
cialists to  Italy  to  induce  her  to  be  faithful  to  her  pledges 
under  the  Triple  Alliance  and  to  come  into  the  war  on  Ger- 
many's side,  or,  failing  that,  at  least  to  remain  neutral. 
Haase,  who  was  a  middle-aged  Konigsberg  (East  Prussia) 
lawyer,  had  for  some  years  been  one  of  the  prominent 
leaders  of  the  Social-Democratic  party  and  was  at  this  time 
one  of  the  chairmen  of  the  party's  executive  committee.  He 
was  later  to  play  one  of  the  chief  roles  in  bringing  about 
the  revolution,  but  even  in  December,  1914,  he  was  still  a 
defender  of  the  war,  although  already  insistent  that  it  must 
not  end  in  annexations  or  the  oppression  of  other  peoples. 

78 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

It  was  not  until  a  whole  year  had  passed  that  he  finally 
definitely  threw  in  his  lot  with  those  seeking  to  weaken  the 
government  at  home  and  eventually  destroy  it. 

The  real  undermining  work,  however,  had  begun  earlier. 
Several  men  and  at  least  two  women  were  responsible  for  it 
at  this  stage.  The  men  included  Liebknecht,  Otto  Riihle,  a 
former  school  teacher  from  Pirna  (Saxony),  and  now  a 
member  of  the  Reichstag,  and  Franz  Mehring.  Riihle,  a 
personal  friend  of  Liebknecht,  broke  with  his  party  at  the 
end  of  1 9 14  and  devoted  himself  to  underground  propagan- 
da with  an  openly  revolutionary  aim,  chiefly  among  the 
sailors  of  the  High  Seas  fleet.  Mehring  was  a  venerable 
Socialist  author  of  the  common  idealistic,  non-practical  va- 
riety, with  extreme  communistic  and  international  views, 
and  enjoyed  great  respect  in  his  party  and  even  among  non- 
Socialist  economists.  The  two  women  referred  to  were  Clara 
Zetkin,  a  radical  suffragette  of  familiar  type,  and  Rosa 
Luxemburg. 

The  Luxemburg  woman  was,  like  so  many  others  directly 
concerned  in  the  German  revolution,  of  Jewish  blood.  By 
birth  in  Russian  Poland  a  Russian  subject,  she  secured 
German  citizenship  in  1870  by  marrying  a  Genosse,  a  cer- 
tain Dr.  Liibeck,  at  Dresden.  She  left  him  on  the  same  day. 
Frau  Luxemburg  had  been  trained  in  the  school  of  Russian 
Socialism  of  the  type  that  produced  Lenin  and  Trotzky. 
She  was  a  woman  of  unusual  ability — perhaps  the  brainiest 
member  of  the  revolutionary  group  in  Germany,  male  or 
female — and  possessed  marked  oratorical  talent  and  great 
personal  magnetism.  Like  all  internationalists  and  especially 
the  Jewish  internationalists,  she  regarded  war  against  capi- 
talistic and  imperialistic  governments,  that  is  to  say,  against 
all  bourgeois  governments,  as  a  holy  war.  Speaking  Rus- 
sian, Polish  and  German  equally  well  and  inflamed  by  what 
she  considered  a  holy  mission,  she  was  a  source  of  danger  to 
any  government  whose  hospitality  she  was  enjoying.  She  be- 
came early  an  intimate  of  Liebknecht  and  the  little  group  of 
radicals  that  gathered  around  him,  and  her  contribution  to 
the  overthrow  of  the  German  Empire  can  hardly  be  over- 
estimated. 

79 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

The  first  of  the  anti-war  propaganda  articles  whose  sur- 
reptitious circulation  later  became  so  common  were  the  so- 
called  "Spartacus  Letters,"  which  began  appearing  in  the 
summer  of  191 5.  There  had  been  formed  during  the  revolu- 
tion of  1848  a  democratic  organization  calling  itself  the 
"Spartacus  Union."  The  name  came  from  that  Roman 
gladiator  who  led  a  slave  uprising  in  the  last  century  of  the 
pre-Christian  era.  This  name  was  adopted  by  the  authors 
of  these  letters  to  characterize  the  movement  as  a  revolt  of 
slaves  against  imperialism.  The  authorship  of  the  letters 
was  clearly  composite  and  is  not  definitely  known,  but  they 
were  popularly  ascribed  to  Liebknecht.  His  style  marks 
some  of  them,  but  others  point  to  Frau  Luxemburg,  and  it 
is  probable  that  at  least  these  two  and  possibly  other  per- 
sons collaborated  in  them.  They  opposed  the  war,  which 
they  termed  an  imperialistic  war  of  aggression,  and  sum- 
moned their  readers  to  employ  all  possible  obstructive  tac- 
tics against  it.  Revolution  was  not  mentioned  in  so  many 
words,  but  the  tendency  was  naturally  revolutionary. 

Despite  all  efforts  of  the  authorities,  these  letters  and 
other  anti-war  literature  continued  to  circulate  secretly.  In 
November,  191 5,  Liebknecht,  Frau  Luxemburg,  Mehring 
and  Frau  Zetkin  gave  out  a  manifesto,  which  was  published 
in  Switzerland,  in  which  they  declared  that  their  views  re- 
garding the  war  differed  from  those  of  the  rest  of  the  So- 
cialists, but  could  not  be  expressed  in  Germany  under  mar- 
tial law.  The  manifesto  was  so  worded  that  prosecution 
thereon  could  hardly  have  been  sustained.  The  Swiss  news- 
papers circulated  freely  in  Germany,  and  the  manifesto  was 
not  without  its  effect.  The  Socialist  party  saw  itself  com- 
pelled on  February  2,  191 5,  to  expel  Liebknecht  from  the 
party.  This  step,  although  doubtless  unavoidable,  proved 
to  be  the  first  move  toward  the  eventual  split  in  the  party. 
There  were  already  many  Socialists  who,  although  out  of 
sympathy  with  the  attitude  of  their  party,  had  nevertheless 
hesitated  to  break  with  it.  Many  of  these,  including  most  of 
Liebknecht's  personal  followers,  soon  followed  him  volun- 
tarily, and  the  allegiance  of  thousands  of  others  to  the  old 
party  was  seriously  weakened. 

80 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

Outwardly,  however,  what  was  eventually  to  become  a 
revolutionary  movement  made  no  headway  during  the  spring 
and  summer  of  191 5-  The  shortage  of  food,  although  mak- 
ing itself  felt,  had  not  yet  brought  general  suffering.  The 
German  armies  had  won  many  brilliant  victories  and  suf- 
fered no  marked  reverse.  Mackensen's  invasion  of  Galicia 
in  May  and  June  revived  the  spirits  of  the  whole  nation,  in 
which,  as  among  all  other  belligerent  nations,  a  certain  war- 
weariness  had  already  begun  to  manifest  itself. 

The  open  break  in  the  Socialist  party  first  became  appar- 
ent at  the  session  of  the  Reichstag  on  December  21,  191 5. 
The  government  had  asked  for  a  further  war-credit  of  ten 
billion  marks.  Haase  had  a  week  earlier  drawn  up  a  mani- 
festo against  the  war,  but  the  newspapers  had  been  forbidden 
to  print  it.  At  this  Reichstag  session  he  employed  his  parlia- 
mentary prerogatives  to  get  this  manifesto  before  the  people 
in  the  form  of  a  speech  attacking  the  war  as  one  of  aggres- 
sion, and  announced  that  he  would  vote  against  the  credit 
asked.  Fourteen  other  members  of  his  party  voted  with  him. 
The  German  people's  solid  war-front  had  been  broken. 

The  motives  of  most  of  those  who  thus  began  the  revolt 
against  the  government  and  who  were  later  responsible  for 
the  revolution  are  easy  to  determine.  Many  were  honest 
fanatics,  and  some  of  these,  chief  among  them  Liebknecht, 
carried  their  fanaticism  to  a  degree  calling  for  the  serious 
consideration  of  alienists.  Others  again  were  moved  by  pure- 
ly selfish  considerations,  and  some  of  them  had  criminal 
records.  Haase  presented  and  still  presents  a  riddle  even  for 
those  who  know  him  well.  Judged  by  his  speeches  alone,  he 
appears  in  the  light  of  an  honest  internationalist,  striving  to 
further  the  welfare  of  his  own  and  all  other  peoples.  Judged 
by  his  conduct,  and  particularly  his  conduct  in  the  months 
following  the  revolution,  he  appears  in  the  light  of  a  politi- 
cal desperado  whose  acts  are  dictated  by  narrow  personal 
considerations.  He  was  particularly  fitted  for  leadership  of 
the  government's  opponents  by  the  absence  from  his  makeup 
of  the  blind  fanaticism  that  characterized  the  majority  of 
these,  and  by  an  utter  unscrupulousness  in  his  methods.  He 


81 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

was  free  also  from  that  fear  of  inconsistency  which  has  been 
called  the  vice  of  small  minds. 

The  questions  growing  out  of  the  manner  of  conducting 
the  submarine  warfare  became  acute  in  the  first  months  of 
191 6.  The  government  was  determined  to  prevent  any  open 
debate  on  this  subject  in  the  Reichstag,  and  the  deputies  of 
all  parties  bowed  to  the  government's  will.  Haase  and  his 
little  group  of  malcontents,  however,  refused  to  submit. 
They  carried  their  opposition  to  the  authority  of  their  own 
party  to  such  an  extent  that  a  party  caucus  decided  upon 
their  exclusion.  The  caucus  vote  was  followed  on  the  same 
day — March  24,  1916 — by  the  formal  secession  from  the 
party  of  Haase  and  seventeen  other  members,  who  consti- 
tuted themselves  as  a  separate  party  under  the  designation 
of  "Socialist  Working  Society"  (Arbeitsgeineinschajt) .  The 
seceders  included,  among  others,  Georg  Ledebour,  Wilhelm 
Dittmann,  Dr.  Oskar  Cohn,  Emil  Barth,  Ernst  Daumig  and 
Eduard  Bernstein.  Liebknecht,  who  had  been  excluded  from 
the  party  a  year  earlier,  allied  himself  to  the  rrew  group. 
All  its  members  were  internationalists. 

The  formation  of  the  new  party  furnished  a  rallying  point 
for  all  radical  Socialists  and  also  for  the  discontented  gen- 
erally, and  the  numbers  of  these  were  increasing  daily.  Un- 
der the  protection  of  their  parliamentary  immunity  these 
members  were  able  to  carry  on  a  more  outspoken  and  effec- 
tive agitation  against  the  war.  Haase,  Ledebour  and  other 
members  of  the  group  issued  a  manifesto  in  June,  1916, 
wherein  it  was  declared  that  the  people  were  starving  and 
that  the  only  replies  made  by  the  government  to  their  pro- 
tests took  the  form  of  a  severe  application  of  martial  law. 
"The  blockade  should  have  been  foreseen,"  said  the  mani- 
festo. "Jt  is  not  the  blockade  that  is  a  crime;  the  war  is  a 
crime.  The  consolation  that  the  harvest  will  be  good  is  a 
deliberate  deception.  All  the  food  in  the  occupied  territories 
has  been  requisitioned,  and  people  are  dying  of  starvation 
in  Poland  and  Serbia."  The  manifesto  concluded  with  an  ap- 
peal to  the  men  and  women  of  the  laboring-classes  to  raise 
their  voices  against  the  continuance  of  the  war. 

The  underground  propaganda  against  the  war  and  the 

82 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

government  assumed  greater  proportions,  and  encouraged 
the  revolutionaries  in  the  Reichstag.  Grown  bold,  Haase 
announced  that  a  pacifist  meeting  would  be  held  in  Berlin 
on  August  30.  It  was  prohibited  by  the  police.  Sporadic 
strikes  began.  Riihle  had  staged  the  first  avowedly  political 
strike  at  Leipsic  on  May  Day.  It  failed,  but  set  an  example 
which  was  followed  in  other  parts  of  the  empire. 

Liebknecht,  who  had  been  mustered  into  the  army  and 
was  hence  subject  to  military  regulations,  was  arrested  on 
May  Day  in  Berlin  for  carrying  on  an  anti-war  and  anti- 
government  agitation  among  the  workingmen.  On  trial  he 
was  sentenced  to  thirty  months'  imprisonment  and  to  dis- 
honorable dismissal  from  the  army.  This  was  the  signal 
for  widespread  strikes  of  protest  in  various  cities.  There 
was  serious  rioting  in  Berlin  on  July  1st,  and  grave  dis- 
orders also  occurred  at  Stuttgart,  Leipsic  and  other  cities. 
Liebknecht  appealed  from  the  conviction  and  the  appellate 
court  raised  the  sentence  to  four  years  and  one  month,  with 
loss  of  civil  rights  for  six  years.  This  caused  a  recrudescence 
of  July's  demonstrations,  for  a  sentence  of  this  severity  was 
most  unusual  in  Germany.  Liebknecht's  personal  followers 
and  party  friends  swore  vengeance,  and  many  others  who 
had  theretofore  kept  themselves  apart  from  a  movement 
with  which  they  secretly  sympathized  were  rendered  more 
susceptible  to  radical  anti-war  propaganda. 

The  autumn  of  19 16  brought  the  government's  so-called 
Hiljsdienstgesetz,  or  Auxiliary  Service  Law,  intended  to 
apply  military  rules  of  enrollment  and  discipline  to  the  car- 
rying out  of  necessaiy  work  at  home,  such  as  wood-cutting, 
railway-building,  etc.  This  law  produced  widespread  dis- 
satisfaction, and  Haase,  by  attacking  it  in  the  Reichstag,  in- 
creased his  popularity  and  poured  more  oil  upon  the  flames 
of  discontent.  In  March,  191 7,  he  declared  openly  in  the 
Reichstag  that  Germany  could  not  win  the  war  and  that 
peace  must  be  made  at  once. 

The  Russian  revolution  of  this  month  was  a  factor  whose 
influence  and  consequences  in  Germany  can  hardly  be  ex- 
aggerated. Not  even  the  wildest  dreamer  had  dared  to  be- 
lieve that  a  revolution  could  be  successfully  carried  through 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

in  war-time  while  the  government  had  millions  of  loyal' 
troops  at  its  disposal.  That  it  not  only  did  succeed,  but 
that  many  of  the  Tsar's  formerly  most  loyal  officers,  as,  for 
example,  Brussiloff,  immediately  joined  the  revolutionaries, 
exerted  a  powerful  effect.  And  this,  while  Germans  loyal  to 
their  government  hailed  the  revolution  as  the  downfall  of  a 
powerful  enemy,  the  masses,  starving  through  this  terrible 
Kohlrubenwinter,  cold,  miserable,  dispirited  by  the  bloody 
sacrifices  from  which  few  families  had  been  exempt,  in- 
fected unconsciously  by  the  doctrines  of  international  So- 
cialism and  skillfully  propagandized  by  radical  agitators, 
began  to  wonder  whether,  after  all,  their  salvation  did  not 
lie  along  the  route  taken  by  the  Russians. 

The  radical  Socialists  who  had  left  the  old  party  in  191 6 
organized  as  the  Independent  Socialist  Party  of  Germany 
at  a  convention  held  in  Gotha  in  April,  191 7.  Eighteen  men 
had  left  the  party  a  year  earlier,  but  one  hundred  and  forty- 
eight,  delegates,  including  fifteen  Reichstag  deputies,  at- 
tended the  convention.  Haase  and  Ledebour  were  chosen 
chairmen  of  the  executive  committee,  and  a  plan  of  oppo- 
sition to  the  further  conduct  of  the  war  was  worked  out. 
Party  newspaper  organs  were  established,  and  some  existing 
Socialist  publications  espoused  th6  cause  of  the  new  party. 
Revolution  could  naturally  be  no  part  of  their  open  policy, 
and  there  may  have  been  many  members  of  the  party  who 
did  not  realize  what  the  logical  and  inevitable  conse- 
quences of  their  actions  were.  The  leaders,  however,  were 
by  this  time  definitely  and  deliberately  working  for  the 
overthrow  of  the  government,  although  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  even  they  realized  what  would  be  the  extent  of  the 
debacle  when  it  should  come. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  strikes  in  various 
parts  of  the  empire.  These  had  been,  up  to  191 8,  chiefly  due 
to  dissatisfaction  over  material  things — hunger  (the  strong 
undercurrent  of  all  dissatisfaction),  inadequate  clothing, 
low  wages,  long  hours,  etc.  They  were  encouraged  and  often 
manipulated  by  radical  Socialists  who  perceived  their  im- 
portance as  a  weapon  against  the  government,  and  were  to 
that  extent  political,  but  the  first  great  strike  with  revolution 

84 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

as  its  definite  aim  was  staged  in  Berlin  and  Essen  at  the  end 
of  January,  191 8.  The  strength  of  the  Independent  Social- 
ists and  of  the  more  radical  adherents  of  Liebknecht,  Le- 
debour,  Rosa  Luxemburg  and  others  of  the  same  stamp, 
while  it  had  increased  but  slowly  in  the  rural  districts  and 
the  small  towns,  had  by  this  time  reached  great  proportions 
in  the  capital  and  generally  in  the  industrial  sections  of 
Westphalia.  Two  great  munition  plants  in  Berlin  employing 
nearly  a  hundred  thousand  workers  were  almost  solidly 
Independent  Socialist  in  profession  and  Bolshevist  in  fact. 
The  infection  had  reached  the  great  plants  in  and  around 
Essen  in  almost  equal  degree.  A  great  part  of  these  malcon- 
tents was  made  up  of  youths  who,  in  their  early  teens  when 
the  war  broke  out,  had  for  more  than  three  years  been  re- 
leased from  parental  restraint  owing  to  the  absence  of  their 
soldier-fathers  and  who  had  at  the  same  time  been  earning 
wages  that  were  a  temptation  to  lead  a  disordered  life.  They 
were  fertile  ground  for  the  seeds  of  propaganda  whose  sow- 
ing the  authorities  were  unable  to  stop,  or  even  materially  to 
check.  Even  Liebknecht,  from  his  cell,  had  been  able  to  get 
revolutionary  communications  sent  out  to  his  followers. 

The  January  strike  assumed  large  proportions,  and  so 
confident  were  the  Berlin  strikers  of  the  strength  of  their 
position  that  they  addressed  an  ''ultimatum"  to  the  govern- 
ment. This  ultimatum  demanded  a  speedy  peace  without 
annexations  or  indemnities;  the  participation  of  working- 
men's  delegates  of  all  countries  in  the  peace  negotiations; 
reorganization  of  the  food-rationing  system;  abolishing  of 
the  state  of  siege,  and  freedom  of  assembly  and  of  the  press ; 
the  release  of  all  political  prisoners ;  the  democratization  of 
state  institutions,  and  equal  suffrage  for  women.  The  strik- 
ers appointed  a  workmen's  council  to  direct  their  campaign, 
and  this  council  chose  an  "action  commission,"  of  which 
Haase  was  a  member. 

The  authorities,  in  part  unable  and  in  part  unwilling  to 
make  the  concessions  demanded,  took  determined  steps  to 
put  down  the  strike.  Their  chief  weapon  was  one  that  had 
been  used  repeatedly,  and,  as  events  proved,  too  often  and 
too  freely.  This  weapon  was  the  so-called  Strajversetzungen, 

85 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

or  punitive  transfers  into  the  front-army.  The  great  part  of 
the  strikers  were  men  subject  to  military  duty  who  had  been 
especially  reclaimed  and  kept  at  work  in  indispensable  in- 
dustries at  home.  They  were,  however,  subject  to  military 
law  and  discipline,  and  the  imminent  threat  of  being  sent 
to  the  front  in  case  of  insubordination  had  prevented  many 
strikes  that  would  otherwise  have  come,  and  the  carrying  in- 
to effect  of  this  threat  had  broken  many  revolts  in  factories. 
Thousands  of  these  men,  who  had  been  drawing  high  wages 
and  receiving  extra  allowances  of  food,  were  promptly 
sent  into  the  trenches. 

Every  such  Strajvcrsetzung  was  worse  than  a  lost  battle 
in  its  effect.  The  victims  became  missionaries  of  revolution, 
filled  with  a  burning  hatred  for  the  government  that  had 
pulled  them  from  their  comfortable  beds  and  safe  occupa- 
tions and  thrown  them  into  the  hail  of  death  and  the  hard- 
ships of  the  front.  They  carried  the  gospel  of  discontent, 
rebellion  and  internationalism  among  men  who  had  there- 
tofore been  as  sedulously  guarded  against  such  propaganda 
as  possible.  The  morale  of  the  soldiery  was  for  a  time  re- 
stored by  the  successes  following  the  offensive  of  March, 
191 8,  and  it  never  broke  entirely,  even  during  the  terrible 
days  of  the  long  retreat  before  the  victorious  Allied  armies, 
but  it  was  badly  shaken,  and  the  wild  looting  that  followed 
the  armistice  was  chiefly  due  to  the  fellows  of  baser  sort  who 
were  at  the  front  because  they  had  been  sent  thither  for  pun- 
ishment. 

Yet  another  factor  played  an  important  part  in  increas- 
ing discontent  at  the  front.  One  can  say,  without  fear  of 
intelligent  contradiction,  that  no  other  country  ever  pos- 
sessed as  highly  trained  and  efficient  officers  as  Germany  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  war.  There  were  martinets  among  them, 
and  the  discipline  was  at  best  strict,  but  the  first  article  of 
their  creed  was  to  look  after  the  welfare  of  the  men  com- 
mitted to  their  charge.  Drawn  from  the  best  families  and 
with  generations  of  officer-ancestors  behind  them,  they  were 
inspired  by  both  family  and  class  pride  which  forbade  them 
to  spare  themselves  in  the  service  of  the  Fatherland.  The 
mortality  in  the  officer-corps  was  enormous.   About  forty 

86 


AND  TPIE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

per  cent  of  the  original  officers  of  career  were  killed,  and  a 
majority  of  the  rest  incapacitated.  The  result  was  a  shortage 
of  trained  men  which  made  itself  severely  felt  in  the  last 
year  of  the  war.  Youths  of  eighteen  and  nineteen,  fresh  from 
the  schools  and  hastily  trained,  were  made  lieutenants  and 
placed  in  command  of  men  old  enough  to  be  their  fathers. 
The  wine  of  authority  mounted  to  boyish  heads.  Scores  of 
elderly  German  soldiers  have  declared  to  the  writer  inde- 
pendently of  each  other  that  the  overbearing  manners,  ar- 
bitrary orders  and  arrogance  of  these  youths  aroused  the 
resentment  of  even  the  most  loyal  men  and  increased  in- 
estimably the  discontent  already  prevailing  at  the  front. 


87 


CHAPTER  VI. 
Propaganda  and  Morale. 

EVEN  before  the  anti-war  and  revolutionary  propa- 
ganda had  attained  great  proportions  there  were  in- 
dications that  all  was  not  well  in  one  branch  of  the 
empire's  armed  forces.  Rumblings  of  discontent  began  to 
come  from  the  navy  early  in  the  second  year  of  the  war,  and 
in  the  summer  of  191 6  there  was  a  serious  outbreak  of 
rioting  at  Kiel.  Its  gravity  was  not  at  first  realized,  because 
Kiel,  even  in  peace  times,  had  been  a  turbulent  and  riotous 
city.  But  a  few  months  later  the  rioting  broke  out  again, 
and  in  the  early  summer  of  191 7  there  came  a  menacing 
strike  of  sailors  and  shipyard  and  dock  laborers  at  Wil- 
helmshaven.  This  was  mainly  a  wage-movement,  coupled 
with  a  demand  for  more  food,  but  it  had  political  conse- 
quences of  a  serious  nature. 

The  first  displays  of  mutinous  spirit  among  the  men  of 
the  fleet  were  not  so  much  due  to  revolutionary  and  radical 
Socialist  propaganda  as  to  a  spontaneous  internal  dissatis- 
faction with  the  conditions  of  the  service  itself.  No  contin- 
uously extensive  use  of  the  submarines  had  been  made  up  to 
the  middle  of  the  winter  of  191 6.  There  had  been  spurts  of 
activity  with  this  weapon,  but  no  sustained  eff"ort.  By 
March,  1916,  however,  many  U-boats  were  being  sent  out. 
At  first  they  were  manned  by  volunteers,  and  there  had 
been  a  surplus  of  volunteers,  for  the  men  of  the  submarine 
crews  received  special  food,  more  pay,  liberal  furloughs  and 
the  Iron  Cross  after  the  third  trip.  Within  a  year,  however, 
conditions  changed  decidedly.  The  percentage  of  U-boats 
lost  is  not  yet  known,  but  the  men  of  the  fleet  reckoned  that 
a  submarine  rarely  survived  its  tenth  trip.  The  Admiralty 

89 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

naturally  published  no  accounts  of  boats  that  failed  to  come 
back,  and  this  added  a  new  terror  to  this  branch  of  the 
service. 

Volunteers  were  no  longer  to  be  had.  The  result  was  that 
drafts  were  resorted  to,  at  the  first  from  the  men  of  the 
High  Seas  fleet,  and  later  from  the  land  forces.  Such  a  draft 
came  to  be  considered  as  equivalent  to  a  death-sentence.^ 
Disaffection  increased  in  the  fleet.  The  Independent  Social- 
ists were  prompt  to  discover  and  take  advantage  of  these 
conditions.  The  sailors  were  plied  with  propaganda,  oral 
and  written.  The  character  of  this  propaganda  was  not  gen- 
erally known  until  October  9,  191 7,  when  the  Minister  of 
Marine,  Admiral  von  Capelle,  speaking  in  the  Reichstag, 
informed  the  astonished  nation  that  a  serious  mutiny  had 
occurred  in  the  fleet  two  months  earlier,  and  that  it  had  been 
necessary  to  execute  some  of  the  ringleaders  and  imprison 
a  number  of  others. 

Von  Capelle's  disclosures  came  as  answer  to  an  interpel- 
lation by  the  Independent  Socialist  deputies  regarding  pan- 
German  propaganda  at  the  front  and  the  prohibition  of  the 
circulation  of  twenty-three  Socialist  newspapers  among  thq 
men  of  the  ships.  The  Independent  Wilhelm  Dittmann 
made  a  long  speech  supporting  the  interpellation,  and  voiced 
a  bitter  complaint  over  the  fact  that  pan-German  agita- 
tion was  permitted  at  the  front  and  among  the  fleet,  while 
the  Independent  Socialist  propaganda  was  forbidden.  Dr. 
Michaelis,  the  Imperial  Chancellor,  made  a  brief  response, 
in  which  he  announced  that  Admiral  von  Capelle  would  an- 
swer the  Independents.  *T  will  merely  say  one  thing,"  he 
said,  "and  that  is  that  Deputy  Dittmann  is  the  last  man  in 
the  world  who  has  a  right  to  talk  about  agitation  in  the 
army  and  navy." 

Michalis  referred  then  to  a  complaint  by  Dittmann  that 
he  (Michalis)  had  not  been  true  to  his  promise,  made  upon 
assuming  office,  to  treat  all  parties  alike.  "Dittmann  has 
forgotten  to  add  the  qualification   which   I   made  at  that 

'The  heavy  losses  among  array  aviators  had  brought  about  a  similar  state 
of  affairs  at  this  time  in  the  army.  Volunteers  for  the  fighting  planes  ceased 
offering  themselves,  and  a  resort  to  forced  service  became  necessary. 

90 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

time,"  said  the  Chancellor.  'T  said  all  parties  that  do  not 
threaten  the  existence  of  the  empire  or  follow  aims  danger- 
ous to  the  state.  The  party  of  the  Independent  Social- Dem- 
ocrats stands  on  the  other  side  of  that  line  so  far  as  I  am 
concerned." 

This  was  the  first  open  declaration  by  the  government  of 
war  on  the  party  of  Haase,  Dittman,  et  al.  The  Majority 
Socialists — as  the  members  of  the  old  or  parent  organiza- 
tion were  now  termed — joined  in  the  tumult  raised  by  their 
seceding  brethren.  When  the  storm  had  laid  itself,  Admiral 
von  Capelle  made  his  sensational  disclosures.  He  said : 

"It  is  unfortunately  a  fact  that  the  Russian  revolution 
has  turned  the  heads  of  a  few  persons  on  board  our  fleet 
and  caused  them  to  entertain  matured  revolutionary  ideas. 
The  mad  plan  of  these  few  men  was  to  secure  accomplices 
on  all  ships  and  to  subvert  the  whole  fleet,  all  members  of 
the  crews,  to  open  mutiny,  in  order,  by  force  if  necessary, 
to  paralyze  the  fleet  and  compel  peace. 

'*It  is  a  fact  that  these  men  have  entered  into  relations 
with  the  Independent  Socialist  Party.  It  has  been  formally 
established  by  the  evidence  that  the  ringleader  presented  his 
plans  to  Deputies  Dittmann,  Haase  and  Vogtherr  in  the 
caucus-room  of  the  Independent  Socialists  herein  the  Reichs- 
tag building,  and  that  it  received  the  approval  of  these  men. 

"It  is  true  that  these  deputies  pointed  out  the  extreme 
danger  of  the  proposed  action  and  warned  the  conspirators 
to  observe  the  greatest  caution,  but  they  promised  their 
whole-hearted  support  through  the  furnishing  of  agitation 
material  designed  to  incite  the  fleet  to  mutiny." 

Von  Capelle's  speech  was  interrupted  at  this  point  by 
cries  of  indignation  from  the  parties  of  the  right  and  center, 
and  by  abusive  remarks  directed  against  the  speaker  from 
the  Socialists  of  both  factions.  When  the  presiding-officer 
had  succeeded  in  restoring  a  semblance  of  order,  the  Ad- 
miral continued : 

"In  view  of  this  situation  it  was  my  first  duty  to  prevent 
with  all  possible  means  at  my  disposal  the  circulation  of  the 
incitatory  literature  among  the  fleet. 

"  I  do  not  care  at  this  time  to  go  into  details  concerning 

91 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

the  further  happenings  in  the  fleet.  Some  few  men  who  had 
forgotten  honor  and  duty  committed  grave  crimes  and  have 
undergone  the  punishment  which  they  deserved.  I  will  only 
add  here  that  the  rumors  in  circulation,  which  have  natural- 
ly come  also  to  my  ears,  are  exaggerated  beyond  all  meas- 
ure. The  preparedness  of  the  fleet  for  battle  has  not  been 
brought  in  question  for  a  single  moment,  and  it  shall  and 
will  not  be." 

The  three  deputies  named  by  von  Capelle  defended  them- 
selves in  speeches  which,  judged  even  on  their  merits  and 
without  reference  to  the  personalities  and  records  of  the  men 
making  them,  did  not  ring  quite  true  or  carry  complete  con- 
viction. In  the  light  of  the  previous  and  subsequent  conduct 
of  the  trio  and  of  the  occurrences  of  November,  191 8,  their 
shifty  and  evasive  character  is  apparent.  We  have  already 
learned  something  of  Haase's  activities,  and  the  other  two 
were  among  his  ablest  and  most  energetic  lieutenants.  Ditt- 
mann,  virtually  a  Communist  and  pronounced  internation- 
alist, was  later  arrested  for  pro- revolutionary  activities. 
Erwin  Vogtherr,  the  third  member  of  the  group,  had  from 
the  very  beginning  been  one  of  the  most  perniciously  active 
of  all  revolutionary  propagandists  and  agitators.  He  had 
been  for  some  time  the  editor  of  Der  Atheist  (The  Atheist), 
and  was  of  that  uncompromising  type  of  atheists  who  con- 
sider it  necessary  to  keep  their  hats  on  in  church  to  show 
their  disbelief  in  a  Creator. 

Haase,  in  his  reply  to  the  charges  against  him,  admitted 
that  the  mutineers'  ringleader  had  had  a  conference  with 
him,  Dittmann  and  Vogtherr.  But  this,  he  declared,  was 
nothing  out  of  the  ordinary,  since  it  was  both  his  custom 
and  his  duty  to  receive  the  men  who  came  to  him  from  both 
army  and  navy  to  complain  of  conditions.  The  sailor  re- 
ferred to  by  Admiral  von  Capelle  had  visited  him  during  the 
summer  and  complained  bitterly  about  the  conditions  which 
he  and  his  colleagues  were  compelled  to  endure.  Haase  con- 
tinued : 

"He  declared  further  that  the  sailors,  and  especially 
those  of  lengthy  service,  felt  keenly  the  lack  of  mental  stim- 
ulus, that  great  numbers  of  them  had  subscribed  to  Inde- 

92 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

pendent  Socialist  publications,  were  reading  them  zealously 
and  receiving  stimulus  from  them.  It  was  their  intention  to 
educate  themselves  further  and  to  devote  themselves  to  po- 
litical discussions  in  meetings  on  land.  To  this  end  they 
desired  to  have  literature.  Although,  as  has  been  shown  in 
the  last  days,  political  discussions  have  been  carried  on  un- 
der full  steam,  even  officially,  I  called  this  sailor's  attention 
to  the  fact  that  what  was  in  itself  permissible,  might,  under 
the  peculiar  conditions  under  which  we  lived,  become  dan- 
gerous, and  I  warned  him  to  be  cautious.  This  much  is  cor- 
rect." 

Haase  denied  that  the  sailor  had  submitted  any  revolu- 
tionary plan  to  him  or  his  colleagues,  and  challenged  Ad- 
miral von  Capelle  to  produce  his  evidence. 

It  is  difficult  for  one  who,  like  the  writer,  has  a  thorough 
acquaintance  with  the  Independent  Socialist  publications, 
tcf  take  seriously  the  statement  that  they  were  desired  merely 
for  "mental  stimulus"  by  sailors  who  wished  to  "educate 
themselves  further."  The  plain  tendency  of  all  these  publi- 
cations, disguised  as  cleverly  as  it  might  be  in  an  attempt  to 
escape  confiscation  of  the  issue  or  prosecution  for  treason, 
was  revolutionary.  A  certain  degree  of  venomousness,  scur- 
rility and  abuse  of  bourgeois  opponents  has  always  char- 
acterized all  but  a  few  Socialist  publications  in  all  lands, 
and  the  Independent  Socialist  press  far  outdid  the  organs 
of  the  old  party  in  this  respect.  It  preached  internationalism 
and  flouted  patriotism;  it  ridiculed  all  existing  authority; 
it  glorified  the  Russian  revolution  in  a  manner  calculated  to 
induce  imitation  by  its  readers,  and,  following  the  Bolshevik 
revolution  in  Russia  in  November,  191 7,  it  published  regu- 
larly the  reports  of  the  Isvestia  and  other  Bolshevik  organs, 
with  laudatory  editorial  comment.  The  man  who  "educated 
himself  further"  by  a  reading  of  the  Independent  Socialist 
publications  was  educating  himself  for  revolution  and  for 
nothing  else. 

Vog^herr  set  up  a  straw  man  in  his  reply  and  demolished 
it  to  the  complete  "Satisfaction  of  himself  and  his  brother 
Socialists,  including,  strangely  enough,  also  the  Majority 
Socialists,  who,  despite  the  fact  that  the  Independent  So- 

93 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

cialist  press  had  classified  them  with  bourgeoisie  and 
attacked  them  even  more  bitterly,  on  this  occasion  exhibited 
solidarity  of  feeling  with  their  more  radical  colleagues. 
Vogtherr  declared  that  von  Capelle  had  charged  the  Inde- 
pendents with  having  worked  out  a  plan  for  revolution  in 
the  fleet.  This  alleged  charge  he  denied.  He  spoke  with  a 
certain  pathos  of  the  oppressed  sailors  who  recognized  in 
the  Independents  their  real  friends  and  naturally  came  to 
them  instead  of  going  to  deputies  in  whom  they  had  no 
confidence.  He,  too,  demanded  that  the  Minister  of  Marine 
produce  his  proof.  Vogtherr,  like  Haase  before  him,  de- 
voted a  part  of  his  speech  to  a  general  attack  on  von  Capelle 
and  Michaelis,  plainly  the  attempt  of  a  practical  politician 
to  confuse  the  issue. 

Dittmann  spoke  briefly  along  the  lines  followed  by  Haase 
and  Vogtherr.  He  had,  he  said,  carefully  warned  his  sailor- 
visitors  to  keep  within  safe  bounds.  He  refused  to  permit 
either  Admiral  von  Capelle  or  Chancellor  Michalis  to  re- 
strict his  rights  as  Reichstag  deputy  to  receive  visitors  and 
hear  their  complaints.  Dittmann  cleverly  -enlisted  further 
^.  the  sympathy  of  the  Majority  Socialists  by  pointing  out 
that  several  of  their  publications  had  also  come  under  the 
ban  of  the  Admiralty.      ^ 

Von  Capelle  responded  to  the  challenge  of  the  trio  to  pro- 
duce his  evidence.  He  read  the  following  testimony,  given  at 
the  court-martial  by  one  of  the  lieutenants  of  the  mutineers' 
ringleader,  a  man  named  Sachse.  This  witness  testified: 

"I,  too,  made  a  personal  visit  to  Deputy  Dittmann  in  the 
Reichstag  after  Reichpietsch  (the  ringleader)  had  visited 
him.  I  introduced  myself  by  saying  that  I  came  from  Reich- 
pietsch and  that  I  came  in  the  same  matter.  Dittmann  indi- 
cated that  he  knew  what  I  meant.  He  was  glad  to  see  me  and 
said :  'We  must  go  ahead  in  the  same  way,  but  we  must  use 
great  caution.' 

"Regarding  his  conference  with  the  members  of  the  party 
Reichpietsch  told  me  the  following :  He  had  not  been  with 
Dittmann  alone,  but  there  had  been  a  Wnd  of  a  party  con- 
ference, participated  in  by  Dittmann,  Vogtherr  and  Haase. 
Reichpietsch  communicated  to  them  the  plan  and  the  results 

94 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

thus  far  attained  by  the  organization,  which,  according  to 
his  declaration,  was  very  enthusiastic  about  the  matter. 

"After  discussion  of  the  details  of  the  organization,  the 
deputies  told  Reichpietsch  that  this  was  a  prohibited  and 
punishable  undertaking  and  a  very  daring,  one,  and  he  must 
be  very  careful.  So  far  as  they  were  concerned,  they  would 
support  his  agitation  in  every  manner,  and  especially 
through  pamphlets  and  other  literature." 

Admiral  von  Capelle  further  read  from  the  testimony  of 
the  ringleader,  Reichpietsch,  who,  after  reading  Sachse's 
testim.ony,  had  said  under  oath : 

"  Insofar  as  this  testimony  concerns  me  it  is  correct.  That 
is  to  say,  what  I  told  Sachse  was  a  true  report  of  what  had 
happened  in  Berlin." 

Friedrich  (Fritz)  Ebert,  the  Majority  Socialist  leader 
who  later  became  the  first  president  of  the  German  Repub- 
lic, defended  the  Independent  Socialists  and  declared  that 
the  government  had  offered  no  evidence  to  substantiate  its 
accusations  against  Haase,  Dittmann  and  Vogtherr.  Deputy 
Naumann  of  the  Progressive  party  also  defended  them  in- 
directly, and  both  he  and  Deputy  Trimborn  of  the  Center 
(Clerical  party)  protested  against  any  effort  to  place  a 
Reichstag  party  outside  the  pale. 

In  view  of  the  revolutionary  activities  of  the  Independent 
Socialists  even  before  that  date  and  of  the  occurrences  of  the 
succeeding  year,  which  culminated  in  the  overthrow  of  the 
government,  this  attitude  of  supposedly  loyal  and  patriotic 
parties  of  the  Reichstag  appears  at  first  sight  astonishing 
and  almost  inexplicable.  There  were,  however,  two  reasons 
(in  the  case  of  the  Majority  Socialists  three  reasons)  for  it. 
Neither  the  bourgeois  parties  nor  the  Majority  Socialists 
had  any  conception  of  the  extent  of  the  revolutionary  propa- 
ganda being  carried  on  by  the  Independents  and  their  more 
radical  accomplices.  As  we  shall  see  later,  even  the  old  party 
Socialists  were  completely  taken  by  surprise  when  the  actual 
revolution  came,  and  revolution  was  almost  an  accomplished 
fact  in  Berlin,  six  days  after  it  had  begun  in  Kiel,  before 
they  awakened  to  what  was  happening.  Hence  the  accusa- 
tions against  their  colleagues  of  another  party  appeared  to 

95 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

the  three  parties  of  the  anti-annexationist  wing  of  the 
Reichstag  as  a  blow  directed  against  all  opponents  of  the 
pan-German  program  of  the  parties  of  the  Right. 

The  second  reason  was  psychological  and  to  be  found  in 
the  atmosphere  of  the  day's  session.  It  had  started,  as  al- 
ready reported,  with  the  discussion  of  an  interpellation  re- 
garding pan-German  propaganda  at  the  front  and  in  the 
fleet.  The  anti-Chauvinist  majority  of  the  Reichstag  had 
earlier  found  its  way  together  in  a  bloc  composed  of  the 
Progressives,  Clericals  and  Majority  Socialists,  and  had 
adopted,  on  July  19,  191 7,  a  resolution,  in  the  main  the 
work  of  Mathias  Erzberger  of  the  Clericals,  calling  for  a 
peace  without  annexations  or  indemnities,  and  reserving  the 
right  of  self-determination  to  all  nations.  Equally  with  the 
Independent  Socialists,  this  bloc  had  been  stirred  to  indig- 
nation by  the  shameless  manner  in  which  the  high  civil  and 
military  authorities  not  only  permitted  the  advocates  of  an 
imperialistic  and  annexationist  peace  to  carry  on  their  prop- 
aganda among  the  soldiers  and  sailors,  but  even  encouraged 
and  actively  assisted  in  that  work.  Not  only  all  Socialist 
publications,  but  even  many  bourgeois  papers  of  the  stamp 
of  the  Berlin  Tageblatt  were  absolutely  forbidden  by  the 
commanders  of  many  troop  units,  and  the  soldiers  were 
compelled  to  listen  to  speeches  by  members  of  the  pan-Ger- 
man Vater lands partei  (Fatherland  Party)  and  similar  or- 
ganizations. Ignorant  of  the  extent  and  nature  of  the  Inde- 
pendent Socialists'  efforts  to  undermine  authority,  the  bloc 
parties  saw  in  Admiral  von  Capelle's  charges  only  another 
manifestation  of  the  spirit  against  which  their  own  fight 
was  directed.  That,  in  these  circumstances,  they  should  de- 
fend the  Independents  was  but  natural. 

The  third  reason  affecting  the  course  of  the  Majority  So- 
cialists has  already  been  referred  to  in  passing.  This  was  the 
feeling  of  party  solidarity,  which  still  existed  despite  the 
fact  that  the  Independents  had  had  their  own  party  organi- 
zation for  some  six  months.  Most  of  the  prominent  men  in 
both  Socialist  parties  had  worked  together  in  a  common 
cause  for  many  years,  and  while,  in  the  heat  of  purely  parti- 
san conflicts  this  was  sometimes  forgotten  for  the  moment, 

96 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

it  nevertheless  united  the  two  factions  when,  as  now,  the 
attack  came  from  the  extreme  Right. 

Complete  details  of  the  mutiny  of  this  summer  have  never 
been  given  out.  According  to  the  best  reports  available,  it 
started  on  the  battleship  Westfalen  at  Wilhelmshaven  and 
included  altogether  four  vessels,  one  of  which  was  the  Niirn- 
berg.  The  captain  of  the  Nurnherg  is  said  to  have  been 
thrown  overboard.  Rumor  and  enemy  report  made  the  most 
of  the  affair  and  undoubtedly  exaggerated  it  greatly,  but 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  was  serious  and  that  the  morale 
of  the  fleet  was  greatly  affected  by  it.  Some  of  the  ring- 
leaders— how  many  it  is  not  known — were  executed,  and  a 
considerable  number  were  imprisoned  for  long  terms.  The 
extent  and  severity  of  the  sentences  added  fuel  to  the  dis- 
content already  prevailing  throughout  the  fleet.  The  men's 
fighting  spirit  sank  as  their  revolutionary  spirit  rose.  Von 
Capelle's  boast  that  the  fleet's  preparedness  for  battle  "shall 
and  will  not  be  brought  in  question  for  a  moment"  was  a 
vain  boast.  The  fleet  was  already  rotten  at  the  core. 

Ironic  fate  had  led  the  men  who  directed  the  affairs  of  the 
German  Empire  to  forge  one  of  the  weapons  with  which  it 
was  later  to  be  destroyed.  On  April  9,  191 7,  Nicholas  Lenine, 
with  thirty-two  fanatical  followers,  had  been  brought  from 
Switzerland  through  Germany  in  a  sealed  car  and  sent  into 
Russia  to  sow  the  seeds  of  Bolshevism.  How  the  plan  suc- 
ceeded is  only  too  well  known.  November  brought  the  over- 
throw of  the  Kerensky  government.  Released  from  the  ne- 
cessity of  the  intensive  pre-revolutionary  propaganda  at 
home,  the  Bolsheviki  turned  their  attention  to  imperialistic 
Germany.  Their  missionaries,  liberally  equipped  with  cor- 
ruption funds,  entered  Germany  by  secret  routes  and  worked 
with  Germans  in  sympathy  with  their  cause,  notably  Lieb- 
knecht.  Foremost  among  their  propagandists  was  a  man 
who  called  himself  Radek.  His  real  name  was  Sobelsohn, 
a  Jew  from  Austrian  Galicia.  Expelled  from  his  labor  union 
before  the  war  for  robbing  a  Genosse,  he  had  settled  in 
Bremen  and  was  even  then  the  guiding  spirit  in  the  most 
radical  and  rabid  circles.  After  the  Russian  Bolshevik  revo- 
lution he  quickly  took  up  the  severed  threads  of  his  former 

97 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

connections.  He  was  intimate  with  all  the  Independent  So- 
cialist leaders  already  named,  and  with  many  others.  A  man 
of  acknowledged  organizing  and  propagandizing  ability, 
he  contributed  markedly  to  making  Germany  fipe  for  revo- 
lution. 

All  the  gates  were  thrown  down  to  Bolshevism  following 
the  treaty  of  Brest-Litovsk,  when  Joffe,  the  Bolshevik  Am- 
bassador, was  permitted  to  come  to  Berlin  and  establish 
himself  in  the  palace  of  the  former  Imperial  Russian  Em- 
bassy in  Unter  den  Linden.  He  brought  a  staff  of  men  and 
women  whose  sole  duty  it  was  to  carry  on  Bolshevist  propa- 
ganda against  the  government  to  which  he  was  accredited. 
Leading  Independent  Socialists  were  frequent  visitors  at 
the  embassy,  and  Haase,  at  an  elaborate  banquet  held  there 
in  May,  191 8,  responded  to  the  toast,  "The  Red  Interna- 
tional." 
\  Closest  to  Joffe  of  all  Germans  was  Dr.  Oskar  Cohn,  one 
^W  •  of  the  founders  of  the  Independent  Socialist  Party.  Cohn, 
who  is  a  Berlin  lawyer,  possesses  that  curious  combination 
of  characteristics  so  often  encountered  in  extreme  Socialism. 
In  his  private  life  of  undoubted  probity,  he  rejoiced  at  an 
opportunity  to  accept  and  distribute  money  given  by  a 
foreign  government  to  overthrow  the  government  of  his 
own  Fatherland.  Mild-mannered  and  an  opponent  of  force, 
he  made  the  cause  of  Liebknecht's  murderous  Spartacans 
his  own.  Scholarly  and  of  deep  learning,  he  associated  free- 
ly with  the  dregs  of  the  population,  with  thieves  and  mur- 
derers, in  furtherance  of  the  cause  of  the  international  pro- 
letariat. He  became  the  legal  adviser  of  Joffe  and  one  of  the 
main  distributors  of  the  Bolsheviki's  corruption  fund. 

The  political  police  were  at  all  times  cognizant  of  the 
revolutionary  propaganda  that  was  being  carried  on,  but 
they  were  greatly  hampered  in  their  work  by  a  limitation 
which  had  been  imposed  in  191 7  upon  the  so-called  Schutz- 
haft,  literally  "protective  arrest."  This  had  been  freely 
used  against  suspected  persons  from  the  beginning  of  the 
war,  and  hundreds  had  sat  in  jail  for  weeks  in  what  was 
equivalent  to  a  sentence  of  imprisonment,  without  having 
had  an  opportunity  to  hear  what  the  charge  against  them 

98 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

was.  The  abuse  of  this  right  became  so  glaring  that  it  was 
provided  in  191 7  that  arrested  persons  could  not  be  detained 
without  a  definite  crime  being  charged  against  them.  The 
police  made  a  long  report  on  Joffe's  activities  in  June,  191 8, 
and  the  authorities,  with  some  hesitation,  placed  the  matter 
before  the  "Ambassador."  He  lied  bravely,  declaring  that  he 
cherished  no  plans  against  the  integrity  of  the  German  Em- 
pire and  that  his  large  staff  existed  solely  to  carry  on  the 
legitimate  business  of  the  embassy. 

The  authorities,  unconvinced,  maintained  a  watch  on  the 
activities  of  the  Russians.  They  were  particularly  suspicious 
of  the  unusual  number  of  diplomatic  couriers  passing  be- 
tween Berlin  and  Petrograd.  Their  number  was  said  to  reach 
nearly  four  hundred.  The  press  began  to  voice  these  sus- 
picions. Joffe,  with  a  fine  show  of  indignation,  declared  that 
it  "was  beneath  his  dignity"  to  take  any  notice  of  them.  The 
tenuity  of  Herr  Joffe's  dignity  and  the  value  of  his  word  be- 
came apparent  on  November  5,  191 8,  in  the  revolution  week, 
when  a  box  in  the  luggage  of  a  courier  arriving  from  Russia 
was — "accidentally,"  as  the  official  report  put  it — broken 
open  at  the  railway  station.  Its  contents  proved  to  be  Bol- 
shevik propaganda  literature  inciting  the  Germans  to  insti- 
tute a  reign  of  terror  against  the  bourgeoisie,  to  murder  the 
oppressors  of  the  proletariat  and  to  overthrow  the  govern- 
ment. One  of  these  appeals  came  from  the  Spartacan  Inter- 
nationale and  contained  a  carefully  worked-out  program  for 
instituting  a  reign  of  terror. 

Even  the  Vorwdrts,  which  had  been  reluctant  to  credit  the 
charges  against  Genosse  Joffe,  was  now  compelled  to  admit 
that  he  had  lied  and  misused  his  diplomatic  privileges.  Joffe, 
still  denying  his  guilt,  was  escorted  from  the  embassy  in  the 
middle  of  the  following  night  by  an  armed  guard  and  placed 
aboard  a  special  train  for  Moscow,  with  the  whole  staff  of 
the  embassy  and  of  the  Rosta  Telegraph  Agency,  ostensibly 
a  news  agency,  but  really  an  institution  for  carrying  on  Bol- 
shevik propaganda.  Once  safe  in  Russia,  Joffe  admitted  his 
activities  in  Germany  and  gloried  in  them.  In  a  wireless 
message  sent  on  December  8,  19 18,  he  said  the  Bolshevik 
literature  had  been  circulated  "through  the  good  offices  of 

99 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

the  Independent  Socialists."  He  declared  further  that  a  much 
greater  number  of  weapons  than  had  been  alleged  had  been 
handed  over  to  the  Independent  Barth,  together  with  "sev- 
eral hundred  thousand  roubles."  He  added: 

"  I  claim  for  myself  the  honor  of  having  devoted  all  my 
powers  to  the  success  of  the  German  revolution  through  my 
activities,  which  were  carried  on  in  agreement  with  the  In- 
dependent Socialist  ministers  Haase  and  Barth  and  with 
others." 

Following  the  publication  of  this  wireless  message,  Cohn 
also  issued  an  explanation  of  his  activities  in  connection  with 
Joffe.  He  said : 

"Is  any  particular  explanation  or  justification  needed  to 
make  it  clear  that  I  gladly  accepted  the  funds  which  the  Rus- 
sian comrades  sent  me  by  the  hand  of  Comrade  JofFe  for  the 
purposes  of  the  German  revolution?  Comrade  Joffe  gave  me 
the  money  in  the  night  of  November  5th.  This  had  nothing 
to  do  with  the  money  which  he  had  previously  given  me  for 
the  purchase  of  weapons.  I  used  the  money  for  the  purpose 
intended,  namely,  the  spreading  of  the  revolutionary  idea, 
and  regret  only  that  circumstances  made  it  impossible  for 
me  to  use  all  of  it  in  this  manner." 

Bolshevik  centers  had  been  organized  all  over  Germany 
when  the  revolution  came.  On  the  same  day  Joffe  was  ex- 
pelled, the  police  in  Diisseldorf  closed  a  Bolshevik  nest  which 
was  ostensibly  conducted  as  a  news  agency.  It  was  but  one  of 
scores  of  similar  centers  of  revolution. 

The  revolutionary  propaganda  being  carried  on  inside 
the  empire  was  powerfully  aided  and  supplemented  by  the 
activities  of  Germany's  enemies  along  the  same  lines.  No  de- 
tailed report  of  the  extent  of  this  branch  of  warfare  is  yet 
available,  but  it  was,  in  the  words  of  one  of  Germany's  lead- 
ing generals  in  a  talk  with  the  writer,  "  devilishly  clever  and 
effective."  From  the  air,  through  secret  channels,  through 
traitors  at  home,  the  German  soldier  or  sailor  was  worked 
upon.  He  was  told  truths  about  the  forces  against  him  that 
had  been  suppressed  by  the  German  censors.  The  folly  of 
longer  trying  to  oppose  the  whole  world  was  pointed  out,  and 
every  possible  weakness  in  the  German  character  was  cun- 

100 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDltAt^JESj>%Viv;  ^;A 

ningly  exploited.  The  good  effect  of  this  propaganda  cannot 

be  doubted.  ''cfr^"*^   y?rC€f^    f^Uu*  Xh»<4.>.^^^ 

Testimony  regarding  the  part  played  by  enemy  propa-  Y'^'^'^« 
ganda  in  bringing  about  the  final  collapse  of  Germany  has*^^c«ci^ 
been  given  by  one  of  the  men  best  qualified  to  know  the 
facts.  In  an  article  in  Everybody's  Magazine  for  February, 
1919,  George  Creel,  chairman  of  the  American  Committee 
on  Public  Information,  gives  full  credit  to  the  work  of 'the 
American  soldiers,  but  declares  that,  in  the  last  analysis, 
Germany  was  defeated  by  publicity.  The  military  collapse  of 
Germany  was  due  to  *'a  disintegration  of  morale  both  on  the 
firing  line  and  among  the  civilian  population."  It  was  the 
telling  of  the  truth  to  the  Germans  by  their  enemies  that 
finally  caused  the  debacle  at  a  time  when  the  German  Army 
"was  well  equipped  with  supplies  and  ammunitions,  and  be- 
hind it  still  stretched  line  after  line  almost  impregnable  by 
reason  of  natural  strength  and  military  science."^ 

The  propaganda  literature  was  prepared  by  historians, 
journalists  and  advertising  specialists,  and  even  some  psy- 
chologists were  enlisted  to  help  in  its  writing.  Germany's 
borders,  however,  were  so  carefully  guarded  that  it  was 
difficult  to  get  the  matter  into  the  country.  Mr.  Creel  relates 
interestingly  how  this  was  done.  Aeroplanes  were  employed 
to  some  extent,  but  these  were  so  badly  needed  for  fight- 
ing purposes  that  not  enough  could  be  obtained  for  distri-  . 
bution  of  propaganda  literature. 

'The  French  introduced  a  rifle-grenade  that  carried 
pamphlets  about  six  hundred  feet  in  a  favoring  wind,  and 
a  seventy-five  millimeter  shell  that  carried  four  or  five 
miles.  The  British  developed  a  six-inch  gun  that  carried 
ten  or  twelve  miles  and  scattered  several  thousand  leaflets 
from  each  shell.  The  Italians  used  rockets  for  close  work 
on  the  front,  each  rocket  carrying  forty  or  fifty  leaflets. 

^German  assertions  that  their  armies  were  never  defeated  in  a  military 
sense  regularly  arouse  and  will  long  continue  to  arouse  anger  and  scornful 
indignation  among  their  enemies,  yet  here  we  have  official  testimony  to 
support  their  contentions.  It  is  no  detraction  from  the  valor  and  military 
successes  of  the  Allies  to  assert  again  that  if  the  German  troops  had  not 
been  weakened  physically  by  starvation  and  morally  by  enemy  propaganda, 
they  could  have  carried  on  the  war  for  many  months  more. 

101 


•  «  '•  •    • 

•  «,  «  •     • 

•  t      •      t  c 


;.\;  ;.•;  V:-^.NT>.  THE<  KAISER  ABDICATES 

The  obvious  smash  at  German  morale  was  through  Amer- 
ica's aim  and  swift  war-progress,  and  for  this  reason  the 
Allies  used  the  President's  speeches  and  our  military  facts 
freely  and  sometimes  exclusively. 

"To  reach  further  behind  the  lines,  all  fronts  used  paper 
balloons  filled  with  coal-gas.  They  would  remain  in  the  air 
a  minimum  of  twenty  hours,  so  as  to  make  a  trip  of  six  hun- 
dred miles  in  a  thirty-mile  wind.  On  a  Belgian  fete-day 
such  balloons  carried  four  hundred  thousand  greetings  in- 
to Belgium,  and  some  flew  clear  across  Belgium.  Fabric 
balloons,  carrying  seventeen  or  eighteen  pounds  of  leaflets, 
were  also  employed,  but  with  all  the  balloons  the  uncer- 
tainty of  the  wind  made  the  work  haphazard. 

"The  attempt  was  made  to  fly  kites  over  the  trenches  and 
drop  leaflets  from  traveling  containers  that  were  run  up  the 
kite-wire,  but  this  method  could  be  used  only  on  fronts 
where  aeroplanes  were  not  active,  because  the  wires  were 
a  menace  to  the  planes.  The  paper  used  in  the  leaflets  was 
chemically  treated  so  that  they  would  not  spoil  if  they  lay 
out  in  the  rain. 

"An  American  invention  that  gave  promise  of  supplant- 
ing all  others  was  a  balloon  that  carried  a  tin  container  hold- 
ing about  ten  thousand  pamphlets.  A  clock  attachment  gov- 
erned the  climb  of  the  balloon,  it  had  a  sailing  range  of  from 
six  to  eight  hundred  miles,  and  the  mechanism  could  be 
set  in  such  a  manner  as  to  have  the  pamphlets  dropped  in 
a  bunch  or  one  at  a  time  at  regular  intervals,  the  whole 
business  blowing  up  conclusively  with  the  descent  of  the  last 
printed  'bullet'." 

Similar  methods  were  used  against  Austria-Hungary, 
writes  Mr.  Creel,  and  did  much  to  shatter  their  feelings  of 
allegiance  to  Germany.  A  proof  of  the  efl'ectiveness  of  the 
propaganda  came  when  an  order  from  the  German  Gen- 
eral Staff"  was  found,  "establishing  death  as  a  penalty  for 
all  those  seen  picking  up  our  matter  or  found  with  it  in  their 
possession.  Austria-Hungary  had  earlier  given  orders  to 
shoot  or  imprison  all  soldiers  or  citizens  guilty  of  the  abom- 
inable crime  of  reading  'printed  lies'  against  the  govern- 
ment." 

102 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

Indirectly,  too,  the  Germans  were  subjected  to  Allied 
propaganda  throughout  the  war.  In  one  matter  the  German 
Government's  attitude  wks  more  democratic  and  ethically- 
defensible  than  the  attitude  of  its  enemies.  It  is  discourag- 
ing to  the  abstract  moralist  to  find  that  this  worked  out  to  the 
detriment  of  those  adopting  the  more  admirable  course.  Of 
all  belligerent  countries,  Germany  was  the  only  one  that 
permitted  the  free  circulation  and  sale  within  its  borders  of 
the  enemy  press.  Leading  French  and  English  editors  were 
able  with  much  difficulty  to  secure  copies  of  some  German 
papers,  and  occasionally  the  large  press  associations  and 
some  of  the  leading  newspapers  in  America  were  permitted 
to  see  a  few  ancient  copies,  but  nowhere  could  they  be  had  by 
the  private  citizen,  nor  even  read  with  safety  in  public  places 
by  those  entitled  to  have  them.  There  was  never  a  time  in 
Berlin,  from  the  first  declaration  of  war  to  the  armistice, 
when  the  leading  American,  French,  English,  Italian  and 
Russian  papers  could  not  be  bought  openly  at  a  dozen  news- 
stands or  hotels,  and  the  same  was  true  generally  throughout 
Germany. 

The  well-disciplined  Germans  at  first  rejected  as  lies  all 
reports  in  these  papers  differing  from  the  official  German 
versions  of  the  same  happenings.  Many  kept  this  attitude 
to  the  last,  but  even  these  began  after  a  while,  in  common 
with  the  less  sturdy  believers,  to  be  morally  shaken  by  the 
cumulative  evidence  of  the  worldwide  unpopularity  of  the 
Germans  and  to  be  dismayed  by  the  tone  of  the  enemy  toward 
everything  that  they  had  heretofore  held  holy.  The  average 
German  stoically  endured  for  a  long  time  to  be  called  "Hun," 
but,  in  homely  phrase,  it  got  on  his  nerves  after  a  while.  The 
wild  atrocity  stories  also  played  their  part.  All  intelligent 
readers  of  history  know  that  tremendous  exaggerations  of 
such  reports  have  always  accompanied  all  wars.  Before  the 
present  war  the  Associated  Press,  the  world's  greatest  news- 
gathering  agency,  barred  war-atrocity  stories  from  its  re- 
ports because  experience  had  demonstrated  that  these  were 
often — perhaps  generally — untrue  and  almost  always  ex- 
aggerated. When  the  enemy  press  converted  the  German 
army's   Kadaververwertungs-Anstalt    (Carcass    Utilization 

103 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

Factory)  into  a  Corpse  Utilization  Factory  {Leichenver- 
wertungs-Anstalt)  and  declared  that  bodies  of  fallen  Ger- 
man soldiers  were  being  rendered  out  for  the  fat,  the  Ger- 
mans were  at  first  indignant  and  angry.  This  feeling  changed 
to  one  of  consternation  and  eventual  depression  when  they 
learned  from  the  enemy  newspapers  that  the  story  was  uni- 
versally believed.  In  the  course  of  the  long  war,  the  constant 
repetition  of  atrocity  reports,  both  true  and  false,  had  a 
cumulative  depressive  effect  which  seriously  shook  the  mo- 
rale of  all  but  the  sturdiest  of  the  people  and  was  one  of  the 
factors  inducing  the  general  feeling  of  hopelessness  that 
made  the  final  debacle  so  complete.  That  everybody  knew 
some  of  the  reports  to  be  true  was  an  aggravation  of  their 
effect.  A  great  part,  perhaps,  indeed,  the  greater  part  of  all 
Germans  condemned  bitterly  the  Belgian  deportations,  just 
as  the  best  minds  of  the  nation  condemned  the  new  Schreck- 
lichkeit  of  the  U-boat  warfare,  but  they  were  helpless  so 
long  as  their  government  was  under  the  iron  thumb  of  the 
military  caste,  and  their  helplessness  increased  their  despair 
when  they  saw  the  opinion  of  the  world  embittered  against 
their  nation. 

There  is  plenty  of  German  testimony  to  show  how  effective 
this  enemy  propaganda  was.  Siegfried  Heckscher,  Reichs- 
tag member  and  chief  of  the  publicity  department  of  the 
Hamburg-America  Line,  writing  at  the  end  of  September, 
pointed  out  the  need  of  a  German  propaganda  ministry  to 
counteract  the  attacks  being  made  on  Germany  by  the  pro- 
paganda work  under  the  direction  of  Lord  Northcliffe. 
.  "The  German  practice  of  silence  in  the  face  of  all  the 
pronouncements  of  enemy  statesmen  cannot  be  borne  any 
longer,"  said  Herr  Heckscher.  "Anybody  who  watches  the 
effect  of  the  Northcliffe  propaganda  in  foreign  countries 
and  in  Germany  can  have  only  one  opinion — that  this  silence 
is  equivalent  to  a  failure  of  German  statesmanship. 

"With  masterly  skill  every  single  speech  of  the  English 
leaders  is  adapted  not  only  to  its  effect  in  England,  but  also 
to  its  influence  on  public  opinion  among  the  neutrals  and 
also,  and  especially,  in  Germany.  *  *  *  *  Hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  Germans,  reading  a  pronouncement  by  the  Presi- 

104 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

dent  of  the  United  States,  ask  themselves  bitterly  what  the 
German  Government  will  say.  Thus  there  is  formed  a  cloud 
of  discontent  and  dark  doubt,  which,  thanks  to  this  North- 
cliffe  propaganda,  spreads  itself  more  and  more  over  the 
German  people.  *  *  *  * 

"We  try  to  protect  our  country  from  enemy  espionage 
and  from  the  work  of  agents  and  scoundrels,  but  with  open 
eyes  we  leave  it  defenseless  while  a  stream  of  poisonous 
speeches  is  poured  over  its  people. 

"  It  will  not,  of  course,  do  for  enemy  pronouncements  of 
importance  to  be  withheld  from  our  people,  but  it  is  as  neces- 
sary for  our  people  as  their  daily  bread  that  the  Anglo- 
Franco-American  influence  should  be  met  by  the  German 
view,  and  that  the  justice  and  greatness  of  the  German  cause 
and  of  the  German  idea  should  be  brought  into  the  clear,  full 
light  of  day.  Nor  is  defense  sufficient.  We  must  also  agres- 
sively  champion  our  cause  in  the  forum  of  the  civilized  world. 

"  I  repeat  what  I  have  said  for  years,  that  Renter  and  the 
English  news  propaganda  are  mightier  than  the  English 
fleet  and  more  dangerous  than  the  English  army." 

The  Kolnische  V olkszeitung  echoed  the  demand  for  a 
propaganda  ministry.  It  wrote: 

"As  our  good  name  has  been  stolen  from  us  and  made 
despicable  throughout  the  world,  one  of  our  peace  demands 
must  be  that  our  enemies  publicly  and  officially  confess  that 
they  have  circulated  nothing  but  lies  and  slanders.  *  *  *  The 
greatest  need  of  the  moment  is  a  campaign  of  enlightenment, 
organized  by  all  the  competent  authorities,  to  hammer  into 
German  heads  that,  if  further  sacrifices  and  efforts  are  re- 
quired of  us,  it  is  not  the  caprice  of  a  few  dozen  people  in 
Germany  nor  German  obstinacy,  but  the  enemy's  impulse 
to  destroy,  that  imposes  them  on  people  at  home  and  at  the 
front." 


105 


CHAPTER  VII. 
'  Germany  Requests  an  Armistice. 

DR.  MICHALIS,  unequal  to  his  task,  laid  down  the 
Imperial  Chancellorship.  His  successor  was  Count 
Hertling,  Minister-President  of  Bavaria.  The  deci- 
sion to  appoint  this  man  Imperial  Chancellor  may  have  been 
influenced  largely  by  a  desire  to  strengthen  the  bonds  beween 
Prussia  and  the  next  largest  German  state.  It  is  possible  also 
that  Hertling's  intimate  relations  with  the  Papal  Court  were 
taken  into  consideration,  but  the  choice  was  a  striking  com- 
mentary on  the  dearth  of  good  chancellorship  material  in 
Germany.  Coiint  Hertling's  age  alone  unfitted  him  to  bear  the 
terrible  burdens  of  this  post,  for  he  was  well  along  in  the 
seventies,  and  not  strong  physically.  He  had  distinguished 
himself  as  an  educator  and  as  a  writer  on  certain  topics,  es- 
pecially Roman  Catholic  Church  history,  and  had  a  record 
of  honorable  and  faithful  service  as  a  member  of  the  Bava- 
rian Government.  In  his  role  as  statesman  he  had  exhibited 
perhaps  a  little  more  than  average  ability,  but  never  those 
qualities  which  the  responsible  head  of  a  great  state  should 
possess. 

A  monarchist  by  birth  and  conviction.  Count  Hertling  was 
particularly  unfitted  for  the  chancellorshTp  at  a  time  when 
the  nation-wide  demand  for  democratic  reforms  of  govern- 
ment was  increasing  in  strength  every  moment.  In  assuming 
his  post  he  declared  that  he  was  fully  cognizant  of  the 
strength  and  justice  of  the  demand  for  an  increased  share  of 
participation  by  the  people  in  the  government,  and  he 
pledged  himself  to  use  his  best  efforts  to  see  that  this  demand 
was  met.  There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  the  honesty  of  his  in- 
tentions, but  it  was  too  much  to  expect  that  an  aged  Con- 
servative of  the  old  school  should  so  easily  shake  off  old 

107 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

notions  or  even  realize  adequately  what  the  great  mass  of 
the  people  meant  when  they  cried  out  for  a  change  of  system. 
Probably  no  man  could  have  carried  out  the  task  confront- 
ing the  Chancellor;  that  Count  Hertling  would  fail  was  in- 
evitable. 

The  empire  was  honeycombed  with  sedition  when  the 
military  reverses  of  the  summer  began.  These  reverses,  dis- 
astrous enough  in  themselves,  were  greatly  magnified  by 
faint-hearted  or  malicious  rumor.  The  military  commander 
in  the  Marches  (Brandenburg)  issued  a  decree  on  September 
9th  providing  for  a  year's  imprisonment  or  a  fine  of  I,5CX) 
marks  for  persons  spreading  false  rumors.  The  decree  ap- 
plied not  only  to  rumors  of  defeats,  but  also  to  reports  ex- 
aggerating the  enemy's  strength,  casting  doubts  on  the  abili- 
ty of  the  German  armies  to  withstand  the  attack  or  bringing 
in  question  the  soundness  of  the  empire's  economic  situation. 

Reports  of  serious  dissensions  in  Austria-Hungary  came 
at  the  same  time  to  add  to  the  general  depression.  The 
Vienna  Arbeiterzeitung  said : 

"In  questions  regarding  food  we  are  compelled  to  ne- 
gotiate with  Hungary  as  if  we  were  negotiating  with  a  for- 
eign power.  The  harvest  is  the  best  since  the  war  began,  but 
the  Hungarians  are  ruthlessly  starving  the  Austrians,  al- 
though there  is  plenty  for  us  all." 

The  Austro-Hungarian  Government  saw  the  trend  of 
events.  Premier  Baron  Burian  told  Berlin  that  the  Dual 
Monarchy  could  not  keep  up  the  struggle  much  longer.  The 
people,  he  said,  were  starving,  and  disloyalty  and  treachery 
on  the  part  of  subject  non-German  races  in  Hungary,  Bo- 
hemia and  the  Slav  population  had  attained  alarming  pro- 
portions. 

"If  the  rulers  do  not  make  peace  the  people  will  make  it 
over  their  heads,"  said  the  Premier,  "and  that  will  be  the 
end  of  rulers." 

He  appealed  to  Germany  to  join  with  Austria-Hungary 
in  making  an  offer  of  peace.  Berlin  counseled  against  such  a 
step.  The  German  Government  had  long  lost  any  illusions 
it  might  have  cherished  in  respect  to  Austria- Hungary's 
value  as  an  ally,  and  it  was  fully  informed  of  the  desperate- 

108 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

ness  of  the  situation  there.  Despite  this  it  realized  that  such  a 
step  as  Vienna  proposed  would  be  taken  by  the  enemy  as  a 
confession  of  weakness,  and  it  clung  desperately  to  the  hope 
that  the  situation  on  the  west  front  might  still  be  saved. 

Burian,  however,  cherished  no  illusions.  Austria  asked  for 
peace,  but  made  it  clear  that  she  did  not  mean  a  separate 
peace.  The  German  people  saw  in  Vienna's  action  the  shadow 
of  coming  events,  and  their  despondency  was  increased. 

Prince  Lichnowsky,  Germany's  Ambassador  at  the  Court 
of  St.  James  at  the  out-break  of  the  war,  had  earlier  con- 
fided to  a  few  personal  friends  copies  of  his  memoirs  regard- 
ing the  events  leading  up  to  the  war.  Captain  von  Beerfelde 
of  the  German  General  Staff,  into  whose  hands  a  copy  came, 
had  a  number  of  copies  made  and  circulated  them  generally. 
The  memoirs  were  a  frank  disclosure  of  Germany's  great 
share  of  the  guilt  for  the  war.  The  authorities  tried  to  stop 
their  circulation,  but  they  were  read  by  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands, and  did  much  to  destroy  general  confidence  in  the  jus- 
tice of  Germany's  cause. 

Count  Hertling,  trying  blunderingly  to  redeem  his  demo- 
cratic promises,  made  a  tactlessly  naive  speech  in  the  Prus- 
sian House  of  Lords  in  favor  of  the  government's  franchise- 
reform  measures.  These  bills,  although  representing  a  de- 
cided improvement  of  the  existing  system,  had  been  bitterly 
criticized  by  all  liberal  elements  because  they  did  not  go  far 
enough,  but  had  finally  been  reluctantly  accepted  as  the  best 
that  could  be  hoped  for  in  the  circumstances.  A  majority 
existed  for  them  in  the  Prussian  Diet,  but  the  Junkers  and 
noble  industrialists  of  the  House  of  Lords  would  hear  of 
no  surrender  of  their  ancient  rights  and  privileges.  The 
Chancellor  in  his  speech  warned  the  Lords  that  they  could 
avoid  the  necessity  of  making  still  more  far-reaching  con- 
cessions later  by  adopting  the  government's  measures  as 
they  stood.  To  reject  them,  he  declared,  would  be  seriously 
to  imperil  the  crown  and  dynasty.  He  closed  with  an  appeal 
to  his  hearers  to  remember  the  services  rendered  to  the 
Fatherland  by  men  of  all  political  creeds,  including  the  So- 
cialists. 

Count  Hertling's  speech  displeased  everybody.  The  Con- 

109 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

servative  press  assailed  him  bitterly.  The  Deutsche  Tages- 
zeitung,  chief  organ  of  the  Junkers,  called  him  "the  grave- 
digger  of  the  Prussian  monarchy."  The  Kreuzzeitung 
charged  him  with  minimizing  the  crown's  deserts  and  ex- 
aggerating the  services  of  the  Socialists.  The  liberal  bour- 
geois and  the  Socialist  press  said  in  effect:  "And  so  this  is 
our  new  democratic  Chancellor  who  advises  the  House  of 
Lords  to  block  an  honest  democratic  reform  of  Prussia's  in- 
iquitous franchise  system."  The  Germania,  chief  organ  of 
the  Clericals,  Hertling's  own  party,  damned  the  speech 
with  faint  praise. 

Talk  of  a  "chancellor  crisis"  was  soon  heard,  and  by  the 
middle  of  September  there  was  little  doubt  that  Hertling's 
days  were  numbered.  Nothing  else  can  so  adequately  indi- 
cate the  reversal  of  conditions  in  Germany  as  the  fact  that 
one  of  the  men  named  oftenest  even  in  bourgeois  circles  as  a 
likely  successor  to  Count  Hertling  was  Philip  Scheidemann, 
a  leader  of  the  Majority  Socialists.  The  vaterlandslose  Ge- 
sellen  were  coming  into  their  own. 

The  crisis  became  acute  on  September  20th.  The  govern- 
ment unofficially  sounded  the  Majority  Socialists  as  to  their 
willingjiess  to  participate  in  a  coalition  government.  The 
question  was  discussed  on  September  22d,  at  a  joint  con- 
ference of  the  Socialist  Reichstag  deputies  and  the  members 
of  the  party's  executive  committee.  Although  one  of  the 
cardinal  tenets  of  Socialism  had  always  forbidden  participa- 
tion in  any  but  a  purely  Socialist  government,  the  final  vote 
was  nearly  four  to  one  in  favor  of  abandoning  this  tenet  in 
view  of  the  extraordinary  situation  confronting  the  empire. 
With  eighty  votes  against  twenty-two  the  conference  de- 
cided to  send  representatives  into  a  coalition  government 
under  the  following  conditions : 

1.  The  government  shall  unqualifiedly  accept  the  declara- 
tion of  the  Reichstag  of  July  19,  1917,^  and  declare  its  wil- 
lingness to  enter  a  League  of  Nations  whose  fundamental 
principles  shall  be  the  peaceful  adjustment  of  all  conflicts 
and  universal  disarmament. 

2.  The  government  shall  make  an  absolutely  unambiguous 

^Vide  chapter  vi. 

110 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

declaration  of  its  willingness  to  rehabilitate  {wiederher- 
stellen)  Belgium  and  reach  an  understanding  regarding 
compensation  to  that  land,  and  also  to  rehabilitate  Serbia 
and  Montenegro. 

3.  The  peace  treaties  of  Brest-Litovsk  and  Bucharest  shall 
not  be  permitted  to  stand  in  the  way  of  a  general  treaty  of 
peace ;  civil  government  shall  be  immediately  established  in 
all  occupied  territories;  occupied  territories  shall  be  evacu- 
ated when  peace  is  concluded;  democratic  representative 
assemblies  shall  be  established  at  once. 

4.  Autonomy  shall  be  granted  to  Alsace-Lorraine;  gener- 
al, equal,  secret  and  direct  right  of  franchise  shall  be  granted 
in  all  German  federal  states;  the  Prussian  Diet  shall  be  dis- 
solved if  the  deliberations  of  the  House  of  Lords  do  not  im- 
mediately result  in  the  adoption  of  the  franchise- reform 
bills. 

5.  There  shall  be  uniformity  in  the  imperial  government, 
and  irresponsible  unofficial  auxiliary  governments  {Nehen- 
regierungen)  are  to  be  eliminated;  representatives  of  the 
government  shall  be  chosen  from  the  majority  of  the  Reichs- 
tag or  shall  be  persons  who  adhere  to  the  policies  of  this 
majority;  political  announcements  by  the  crown  or  by  mili- 
tary authorities  shall  be  communicated  to  the  Imperial 
Chancellor  before  they  are  promulgated. 

6.  Immediate  rescission  of  all  decrees  limiting  the  right 
of  assembly  or  the  freedom  of  the  press ;  the  censorship  shall 
be  employed  only  in  purely  military  matters  (questions  of 
tactics  and  strategy,  movements  of  troops,  fabrication  of  mu- 
nitions of  war,  etc.)  ;  a  political  control  shall  be  instituted 
for  all  measures  resorted  to  under  the  authority  of  the  state 
of  siege ;  all  military  institutions  that  serve  to  exert  political 
influence  shall  be  abolished. 

On  the  whole  this  was  a  program  which  appealed  to  the 
vast  majority  of  the  German  people.  The  Conservatives  and 
one  wing  of  the  National  Liberals  would  have  none  of  it, 
but  the  conviction  that  nothing  but  a  change  of  system  would 
save  Germany  had  been  making  rapid  headway  in  the  last 
few  weeks.  Even  many  of  those  opposed  in  principle  to 
democratic   government  began   to    recognize  that  nothing 

111 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

else  could  unite  the  people.  An  article  in  the  Voriudrts  by 
Scheidemann  and  another  in  the  International  Correspond- 
ence, an  ably  conducted  news  agency,  pointing  out  the  vital 
necessity  of  making  any  sacrifices  that  would  save  the  coun- 
try, were  widely  reprinted  and  made  a  strong  appeal. 

Chancellor  Count  Hertling,  addressing  the  Reichstag  on 
September  24th,  made  a  speech  which,  read  between  the 
lines,  was  a  veiled  admission  of  the  desperateness  of  the  situ- 
ation and  the  increasingly  discouraged  condition  of  the  peo- 
ple. He  admitted  frankly  that  the  German  armies  had  met 
serious  reverses  on  the  west  front.  But  Germany,  he  declared, 
had  met  and  triumphed  over  more  serious  situations.  Russia 
and  Roumania  had  been  eliminated  from  the  list  of  enemies, 
and  he  was  confident  that  the  people  would  not  lose  heart 
because  of  temporary  setbacks  and  that  the  soldiers  would 
continue  to  show  their  old  spirit.  Austria's  peace  demarche 
had  been  taken  in  the  face  of  serious  doubts  on  the  part  of 
the  German  Government  regarding  its  advisability,  but  Ger- 
many, now  as  always,  was  ready  to  conclude  a  just  peace. 

General  von  Wrisberg,  said  the  Chancellor,  reported  that 
the  English  successes  against  the  Marne  position  and  be- 
tween the  Ancre  and  the  Aisne  had  been  due  to  fog  and  the 
extensive  employment  of  tanks.  Counter-measures  had  been 
taken  and  there  was  no  reason  for  uneasiness.  The  Germans 
had  lost  many  prisoners  and  guns,  but  the  enemy's  losses 
had  been  frightful. 

"The  American  armies  need  not  frighten  us,"  said  Count 
Hertling.  "We  shall  take  care  of  them."^ 

*The  German  Government  deceived  its  own  people  grossly  in  the  matter  of 
the  American  forces  in  France.  Hans  Delbriick,  editor  of  the  Preussische 
Jahrbucher,  published  on  December  lo,  1918,  a  statement  that  the  govern- 
ment had  forbidden  him  to  publish  Secretary  Baker's  figures  of  the  Ameri- 
can strength,  as  republished  in  the  London  Times.  In  response  to  his  protest, 
the  Supreme  Army  Command  declared  that  Baker's  figures  were  "purely 
American  bluff,  calculated  and  intended  to  mislead  the  German  people." 
But  the  government  not  only  concealed  the  truth;  it  lied  about  the  number 
of  Americans  in  France  and  even  compelled  the  press  to  lie.  A  confidential 
communication  issued  to  the  press  in  the  middle  of  May,  19 18,  declared  that 
"the  number  of  American  combatant  troops  in  France  is  about  ten  divisions, 
of  which  only  four  are  at  the  front.  The  total  of  all  troops,  both  at  the  front 
and  behind  the  lines,  does  not  exceed  150,000  to  200,000.  Press  notices  con- 
cerning these  matters  should  state  that  America  has  not  been  able  to  fulfil  its 

112 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

Captain  von  Briininghaus  of  the  Admiralty  reported  that 
the  U-boats  were  sinking  much  more  tonnage  than  was  being 
built,  and  that  the  losses  of  submarines  were  much  smaller 
than  those  reported  by  the  enemy. 

The  tone  of  the  aged  Chancellor's  speech  was  such  that 
his  words  carried  no  conviction.  The  war-weary,  discouraged 
people  could  not  but  see  in  them  an  admission  that  all  was 
lost. 

And  then  came  a  blow  that  was  felt  by  everybody.  Bul- 
garia surrendered.  The  first  breach  had  been  made  in  the 
alliance  of  the  Central  Powers ;  the  collapse  had  begun  and 
its  significance  was  plain  to  the  humblest  German.  Bulgaria's 
defection  came  as  no  surprise  to  the  government,  which  had 
known  for  nearly  a  week  that  such  an  event  was  at  least 
probable.  On  September  23d,  King  Ferdinand  of  Bulgaria 
had  summoned  a  grand  council  to  consider  the  situation.  The 
result  was  that  a  formal  demand  was  made  on  Berlin  and 
Vienna  for  immediate  assistance.  Germany  and  Austria  rec- 
ognized the  urgency  of  the  situation,  but  they  were  unable  to 
meet  Bulgaria's  demands.  Both  governments  promised  help 
in  the  near  future  and  besought  King  Ferdinand  to  keep  up 
the  struggle  for  a  short  time. 

The  King  realized  the  emptiness  of  these  promises.  There 
was,  moreover,  a  powerful  personal  dynastic  interest  at 
stake.  Revolution  of  the  reddest  type  already  threatened 
his  crown.  Workmen  and  soldiers  were  organizing  Soviets 
in  Sofia  on  the  familiar  Bolshevik  plan,  and  riotous  demon- 
strations had  been  held  in  front  of  the  royal  palace.  Help 
from  Berlin  and  Vienna  was  obviously  out  of  the  question. 
Ferdinand  turned  to  the  Entente. 

The  negotiations  were  brief.  Bulgaria  surrendered  un- 
conditionally. Her  railways  and  all  other  means  of  trans- 
portation were  handed  over  to  the  Allies  to  be  used  for  mili- 
tary or  any  other  purposes.  All  strategic  points  in  the  king- 
expectations  in  the  way  of  sending  troops,  and  that  the  earlier  estimates  of 
the  German  General  Staff  as  to  what  America  could  accomplish  have  proved 
to  be  true.  The  actual  figures  given  above  should  in  no  case  be  mentioned." 
At  this  time  there  were  nearly  one  million  Americans  in  France,  and  it  is 
inconceivable  that  the  German  Supreme  Army  Command  did  not  know  it. 

113 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

dom  were  likewise  given  into  the  control  of  Germany's  ene- 
mies, and  Bulgaria  undertook  to  withdraw  immediately  all 
her  troops  from  Greece  and  Serbia  and  disarm  them. 

As  an  ally  Bulgaria  had  long  ceased  to  play  a  decisive 
part  in  Germany's  military  operations,  but  her  surrender, 
apart  from  its  moral  effect,  was  nevertheless  disastrous  for 
Germany,  General  Mackensen's  army  suddenly  found  itself 
in  a  hostile  land,  with  its  route  of  retreat  threatened.  Thou- 
sands of  German  locomotives  and  cars,  badly  needed  at  home, 
stood  on  tracks  now  handed  over  to  the  control  of  Germany's 
enemies. 

Worst  of  all,  completed  enemy  occupation  of  Bulgaria 
meant  the  isolation  of  Germany  from  another  ally,  for  the 
only  route  to  Constantinople  ran  through  Bulgaria.  The 
days  of  the  Balkan  Express,  whose  initial  trip  had  been  ac- 
claimed as  the  inauguration  of  what  would  some  day  be- 
come the  Berlin-to-Bagdad  line,  were  numbered.  Turkey, 
isolated,  would  no  longer  be  able  to  carry  on  the  war,  and 
reports  were  already  current  that  Turkey  would  follow  Bul- 
garia's example.  British  troops  were  but  a  few  miles  from 
Damascus,  and  Bonar  Law,  reporting  in  a  speech  at  Guild- 
hall the  surrender  of  Bulgaria,  added: 

"There  is  also  something  in  connection  with  Turkey  which 
I  cannot  say,  but  which  we  can  all  think." 

Uneasy  rumors  that  Austria  was  also  about  to  follow  the 
lead  of  Bulgaria  spread  through  Germany. 

The  Kaiser,  wiser  than  his  reactionary  advisers,  issued 
on  the  last  day  of  September  a  proclamation,  in  which  he 
declared  it  to  be  his  will  that  "the  German  people  shall 
henceforth  more  effectively  cooperate  in  deciding  the  des- 
tinies of  the  Fatherland." 

But  the  destinies  of  the  Fatherland  had  already  been  de- 
cided by  other  than  political  forces.  The  iron  wall  in  the 
West  that  had  for  more  than  four  years  withstood  the  shocks 
of  the  armies  of  a  great  part  of  the  civilized  world  was  dis- 
integrating or  bending  back.  In  the  North  the  Belgians, 
fighting  on  open  ground,  were  encircling  Roulers,  lying  on 
the  railway  connecting  Lille  with  the  German  submarine 
bases  in  Zeebrugge  and  Ostende,  and  another  junction  on 

114 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

this  important  route,  Menin,  was  menaced  by  the  British. 
Unless  the  enemy  could  be  stopped  here,  all  the  railways  in 
the  important  triangle  of  Lille,  Ghent,  and  Bruges  must 
soon  be  lost,  and  their  loss  meant  the  end  of  the  U-boats  as 
an  important  factor  in  the  war. 

To  the  north  and  west  of  Cambrai  the  British,  only  a  mile 
from  the  center  of  the  city,  were  forcing  their  way  forward 
relentlessly,  and  the  French  were  closing  in  from  the  south 
on  the  doomed  city,  which  was  in  flames.  British  and  Ameri- 
can troops  were  advancing  steadily  on  St.  Quentin  and  the 
French  were  approaching  from  the  south.  The  American 
forces  between  the  Argonnes  and  the  Meuse  were  moving 
ahead,  but  slowly,  for  the  Germans  had  weakened  their 
lines  elsewhere  in  order  to  concentrate  heavy  forces  against 
the  men  from  across  the  sea. 

Count  Hertling  confessed  political  shipwreck  by  resign- 
ing the  chancellorship.  With  him  went  Vice  Chancellor  von 
Payer  and  Foreign  Minister  von  Hintze.  The  Kaiser  asked 
Prince  Max  (Maximilian),  heir  to  the  throne  of  the  Grand 
Duchy  of  Baden,  to  accept  the  post.  He  complied. 

The  choice  of  Prince  Max  was  plainly  a  concession  to  and 
an  acknowledgement  of  the  fact  that  Germany  had  become 
overwhelmingly  democratic,  and  it  was  at  the  same  time  a 
virtual  confession  that  the  military  situtation  was  desperate 
and  that  peace  must  soon  be  sought.  Baden  had  always  been 
one  of  the  most  democratic  of  the  German  federal  states, 
and  the  Prince  was,  despite  his  rank,  a  decidedly  demo- 
cratic man.  In  the  first  years  of  the  war  he  had  distinguished 
himself  as  a  humane  enemy,  and  had  well  earned  the  tribute 
paid  to  him  by  Ambassador  James  W.  Gerard  in  the 
Ambassador's  book,  My  Four  Years  in  Germany.  This 
tribute  was  paid  in  connection  with  a  proposal  to  place 
Prince  Max  at  the  head  of  a  central  organization  for  pris- 
oners of  war  in  Germany.  The  appointment,  said  Gerard, 
would  have  redounded  to  the  benefit  of  Germany  and  the 
prisoners. 

Prince  Max  had  for  some  years  been  recognized  as  the 
leader  of  the  Delbriick  group  of  moderates,  and  his  name 
had    been    considered    for    the    chancellorship    when    Dr. 

115 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

Michalis  resigned.  That  he  was  not  then  appointed  was 
due  chiefly  to  his  own  reluctance,  based  upon  dynastic  rea- 
sons. He  had  never  been  in  sympathy  with  Schrecklich- 
keit  in  any  of  its  manifestations,  and  was  known  to  be  out  of 
sympathy  with  the  ruling  caste  in  Prussia.  Early  in  191 8  he 
had  made  public  a  semi-official  interview  outlining  his  ideas 
as  to  what  Germany's  peace  terms  should  be.  These  were 
in  general  in  accordance  with  the  resolution  of  the  majority 
hloc  of  the  Reichstag  of  July  19,  191 7,  and  condemned  all 
annexations  of  foreign  territory  and  all  punitive  indemni- 
ties. He  declared  also  that  the  interests  of  Europe  and 
America  would  be  best  served  by  a  peace  which  should  not 
disrupt  the  Anglo-Saxon-Teutonic  peoples,  since  Germany 
must  be  maintained  as  a  bulwark  against  the  spread  of 
Bolshevism  to  the  nations  westward.  The  conclusion  seems 
justified  that  the  government  believed  that  Prince  Max,  un- 
compromised  and  with  known  democratic  leanings,  could 
secure  a  more  favorable  peace  for  Germany  than  any  other 
man  who  could  be  named. 

And  the  government  knew  that  peace  must  be  had.  It 
had  heard  so  on  October  2,  the  day  before  Prince  Max's  ap- 
pointment, from  the  lips  of  a  man  who  brought  a  message 
from  Hindenburg  and  Ludendorff".  What  had  long  been 
feared  had  become  a  reality — an  armistice  must  be  request- 
ed. The  bearer  of  these  calamitous  tidings  was  Major  von 
Busche.  Word  had  been  sent  that  he  was  coming,  and  the 
leaders  of  the  various  Reichstag  parties  assembled  to  hear 
his  message.  Nominally  the  message  came  from  Hinden- 
burg, as  commander-in-chief,  but  really  it  was  Ludendorff" 
speaking  through  Hindenburg  and  his  emissary. 

The  message  was  brief;  Hindenburg,  said  Major  von 
Busche,  had  become  convinced  that  a  request  for  an  armis- 
tice must  be  made.  The  General  Field  Marshal  had  de- 
clared, however,  that  if  the  request  should  be  refused,  or  if 
dishonoring  conditions  should  be  imposed,  the  fight  must 
and  could  go  on.  He  had  no  intention  of  throwing  his  rifle 
into  the  ditch.  If  necessary,  Germany  could  continue  fight- 
ing in  enemy  territory   for  months.   Von   Busche  did   not 


116 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

admit  in  so  many  words  that  all  hope  of  an  eventual  victory 
had  been  lost,  but  that  was  the  effect  of  his  message. 

The  men  who  heard  from  the  highest  military  authori- 
ties in  this  blunt  manner  that  the  situation  was  even  worse 
than  they  had  feared  were  dumfounded.  If  Hindenburg 
and  Ludendorff  had  given  up,  there  was  nothing  to  be  said. 
It  was  decided  to  ask  for  an  armistice. 

Prince  Max  was  inclined  to  refuse  to  become  Imperial 
Chancellor  if  it  meant  that  his  first  act  must  be  a  confession 
of  the  impossibility  of  carrying  on  the  war  longer — for  that, 
he  perceived  clearly,  would  be  the  natural  and  logical  de- 
duction from  a  request  for  an  armistice.  He  particularly 
disapproved  of  making  the  request  as  the  first  act  of  his 
chancellorship.  This,  he  pointed  out,  would  give  a  needless 
appearance  of  desperate  haste  and  increase  the  depressing 
effect  of  the  action,  which  would  in  any  event  be  serious 
enough. 

Prince  Max's  attitude  at  this  crisis  was  explained  by  him 
in  an  article  in  the  Preussische  Jahrbiicher  following  the 
armistice.  He  wrote  then  : 

**  My  peace  policy  was  gravely  hampered  by  the  request 
for  an  armistice,  which  was  presented  to  me  completely 
formulated  when  I  reached  Berlin.  I  opposed  it  on  practical 
political  grounds.  It  seemed  to  me  to  be  a  great  mistake  to 
permit  the  new  government's  first  step  toward  peace  to  be 
followed  by  such  a  surprising  confession  of  German  weak- 
ness. Neither  our  own  people  nor  the  enemy  countries  esti- 
mated our  military  situation  to  be  such  that  a  desperate  step 
of  this  kind  was  necessary.  I  made  a  counter-proposal.  The 
government  should  as  its  first  act  draw  up  a  detailed  pro- 
gram of  its  war-aims,  and  this  program  should  demonstrate 
to  the  whole  world  our  agreement  with  Wilson's  principles 
and  our  honest  willingness  to  make  heavy  national  sacri- 
fices for  these  principles. 

"The  military  authorities  replied  that  it  was  impossible 
to  await  the  result  of  such  a  declaration.  The  situation  at  the 
front  required  that  a  request  for  an  armistice  be  made  within 
twenty-four  hours.  If  I  refused  to  make  it,  the  old  govern- 
ment would  make  it.  I  thereupon  decided  to  form  a  new 

117 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

government  and  to  support  the  unavoidable  request  for  an 
armistice  with  the  authority  of  a  cabinet  of  uncompromised 
men.  A  week  later  the  military  authorities  informed  me 
that  they  had  erred  in  their  estimate  of  the  situation  at  the 
front  on  October  ist." 

Dr.  Solf,  formerly  head  of  the  German  Colonial  Office, 
became  Foreign  Minister,  and  Philip  Scheidemann,  the  So- 
cialist leader,  and  Deputy  Groeber,  a  Clerical  leader,  also 
entered  the  new  ministry.  It  was  the  first  German  ministry 
to  contain  a  Social-Democrat,  and  the  first  which  could  be 
said  to  have  strong  democratic  leanings.  Opinion  in  Wash- 
ington, according  to  a  cablegram  reaching  Copenhagen 
early  on  October  4th,  was  that  the  makeup  of  the  cabinet 
was  regarded  in  America  "as  a  desperate  attempt  of  German 
militarists  to  hoodwink  the  Entente  and  the  German  people 
into  the  belief  that  Germany  is  being  democratized."  This 
opinion  was  inspired  more  by  the  passions  of  war  than  by 
clear  thinking.  Germany  was  being  democratized.  That  the 
democratic  concessions  attempted  by  various  state  rulers 
were  inspired  by  fear  is  true,  but  their  motives  are  of  no 
importance.  It  is  fruits  that  count,  and  the  time  had  come 
when  the  German  people  could  not  longer  be  hoodwinked 
themselves  by  the  militarists,  nor  be  used  as  tools  in  hood- 
winking anybody  else.  That  time,  however,  had  come  too 
late. 

On  October  6th,  Prince  Max,  addressing  the  Reichstag, 
announced  that  a  request  for  an  armistice  had  been  made. 
This  request,  which  was  addressed  to  President  Wilson, 
said: 

"The  German  Government  requests  the  President  of  the 
United  States  to  take  in  hand  the  restoring  of  peace,  to 
acquaint  all  the  belligerent  states  with  this  request,  and  to 
invite  them  to  send  plenipotentiaries  for  the  purpose  of 
opening  negotiations. 

"  It  accepts  the  program  set  forth  by  the  President  of  the 
United  States  in  his  message  to  Congress  on  January  8th, 
and  in  his  later  pronouncements,  particularly  his  speech  of 
September  27th,  as  a  basis  for  peace  negotiations. 

"With  a  view  to  avoiding  further  bloodshed,  the  German 

118 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

Government  requests  the  immediate  conclusion  of  an  armi- 
stice on  land  and  water  and  in  the  air." 

Secretary  of  State  Lansing  sent  the  following  reply  on 
October  8th : 

''Before  replying  to  the  request  of  the  Imperial^  German 
Government,  and  in  order  that  that  reply  shall  be  as  candid 
and  straightforward  as  the  momentous  interests  involved 
require,  the  President  of  the  United  States  deems  it  neces- 
sary to  assure  himself  of  the  exact  meaning  of  the  note  of 
the  Imperial  Chancellor.  Does  the  Imperial  Chancellor  mean 
that  the  Imperial  German  Government  accepts  the  terms 
laid  down  by  the  President  in  his  address  to  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States  on  the  8th  of  January  last  and  in  sub- 
sequent addresses,  and  that  its  object  in  entering  into  dis- 
cussions would  be  only  to  agree  upon  the  practical  details  of 
their  application? 

"The  President  feels  bound  to  say  with  regard  to  the  sug- 
gestion of  an  armistice  that  he  would  not  feel  at  liberty  to 
propose  a  cessation  of  arms  to  the  governments  with  which 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  is  associated  against 
the  Central  Powers  so  long  as  the  armies  of  those  powers  are 
upon  their  soil.  The  good  faith  of  any  discussion  would 
manifestly  depend  upon  the  consent  of  the  Central  Powers 
immediately  to  withdraw  their  forces  everywhere  from  in- 
vaded territory.  The  President  also  feels  that  he  is  justified 
in  asking  whether  the  Imperial  Chancellor  is  speaking  mere- 
ly for  the  constituted  authorities  of  the  Empire  who  have  so 
far  conducted  the  war.  He  deems  the  answer  to  these  ques- 
tions vital  from  every  point  of  view." 

Foreign  Secretary  Solf  replied  four  days  later  with  a  note 
accepting  President  Wilson's  peace  terms  as  laid  down  in 
the  "fourteen  points"  and  the  supplementary  five  points 
latei-  enunciated.  He  declared  that  the  German  Government 
was  prepared  to  evacuate  occupied  territory,  and  suggested 
the  appointment  of  a  mixed  commission  to  arrange  the  de- 
tails. He  asserted  that  the  Chancellor,  in  making  his  request, 

*It  will  be  noticed  that  Prince  Max  did  not  use  the  designation  "Imperial" 
in  connection  with  the  government.  The  omission  was  undoubtedly  deliber- 
ate and  intended  to  emphasize  the  democratic  nature  of  the  new  cabinet, 

119 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

was  supported  by  the  vast  majority  of  the  Reichstag  and 
spoke  in  the  name  of  the  German  Government  and  the  Ger- 
man people. 

The  effect  of  the  request  for  an  armistice  was,  so  far  as 
the  enemy  countries  were  concerned,  precisely  what  Prince 
Max  had  foreseen :  it  was  everywhere  taken  as  an  admission 
of  the  hopelessness  of  the  German  cause.  But  its  first  effect 
within  the  Empire  was  not  unfavorable.  Indeed,  there  is 
reason  to  declare  that  it  was  favorable.  The  mass  of  the 
people  reposed  much  confidence  in  the  new  cabinet,  and  the 
prospect  of  an  early  peace  buoyed  up  both  the  civil  popula- 
tion and  the  soldiers.  The  front,  still  being  forced  slowly 
back,  nevertheless  held  on  to  every  available  position  with 
grim  tenacity  and  in  the  face  of  heavy  losses.  On  October 
8th,  they  repulsed  a  determined  assault  at  the  center  of  their 
long  front  and  even  counter-attacked  in  quite  the  old  style;/ 


120 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  Last  Days  of  Imperial  Germany. 

PRINCE  MAX,  although  inspired  by  the  best  inten- 
tions and  filled  with  modern  and  liberal  ideas,  failed 
to  realize  that  what  was  needed  was  not  a  change  of 
men,  but  a  change  of  methods.  Radical,  fearless  and  immedi- 
ate action  was  necessary,  but  the  government  did  not  perceive 
that  every  passing  day  lessened  its  chances  and  possiblities. 
It  relied  upon  the  slow  progress  of  ordinary  business  routine. 
It  accomplished  much,  it  is  true,  but  it  accomplished  it  too 
slowly  and  too  late. 

Too  late  the  Conservatives  in  the  Prussian  Diet  aban- 
doned their  opposition  to  a  reform  of  the  franchise  system. 
On  October  loth,  they  adopted  this  resolution: 

"In  the  hour  of  the  Fatherland's  greatest  distress  and 
with  a  realization  that  we  must  be  equipped  for  hard  bat- 
tles for  the  integrity  of  the  Fatherland's  soil,  the  Conserva- 
tive Party  in  the  Diet  considers  it  its  duty  to  lay  aside  all  in- 
ternal conflicts.  It  is  also  ready  to  make  heavy  sacrifices  for 
the  ends  in  view.  It  believes  now,  as  ever,  that  a  far-reach- 
ing radicalization  of  the  Prussian  Constitution  will  not  fur- 
ther the  welfare  of  the  Prussian  people.  It  is  nevertheless 
prepared  to  abandon  its  opposition  to  the  introduction  of 
equal  franchise  in  Prussia  in  accordance  with  the  latest  de- 
cisions of  its  friends  in  the  House  of  Lords  in  order  to  assure 
the  formation  "of  a  harmonious  front  against  the  outside 
world.'' 

This  resolution  removed  the  last  obstacle  to  a  real  reform 
of  the  Prussian  franchise. 

Too  late  the  Federal  Council  adopted  radical  amend- 
ments to  the  Imperial  Constitution.  On  October  13th  and 
1 6th,  it  accepted  measures  repealing  article  21,  paragraph 

121 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

2,  which  provided  that  Reichstag  members  should  forfeit 
their  seats  if  they  accepted  salaried  state  or  imperial  offices, 
and  providing  that  cabinet  members  should  no  longer  be  re- 
quired to  be  members  of  the  Federal  Council,  but  should  at 
all  times  have  the  right  to  demand  a  hearing  before  the 
Reichstag.  It  also  amended  article  2  to  read :  "The  consent 
of  the  Federal  Council  and  the  Reichstag  is  required  for  a 
declaration  of  war  in  the  Empire's  name,  except  in  a  case 
where  imperial  territory  has  already  been  invaded  or  its 
coasts  attacked."  Section  3  of  the  same  article  was  amended 
to  read :  "Treaties  of  peace  and  treaties  with  foreign  states 
which  deal  with  affairs  coming  under  the  competence  of  the 
Imperial  law-giving  bodies  require  the  consent  of  the  Fed- 
eral Council  and  the  Reichstag." 

Too  late  the  rulers  of  different  states  promised  democratic 
reforms.  The  crown  council  of  Saxony  on  October  loth 
summoned  the  Landtag  (Diet)  for  October  26th,  and  di- 
rected the  minister  of  the  interior  to  draft  a  measure  "which 
shall  substitute  for  the  franchise  now  obtaining  for  the 
Landtag's  second  chamber  a  franchise  based  on  a  broader 
foundation."  Saxony  then  had  a  four-class  system.  The 
crown  council  also  considered  requesting  the  Socialists  to 
join  the  government. 

The  King  of  Bavaria  caused  it  to  be  announced  that  the 
crown  had  decided  to  introduce  reforms  enabling  Bavaria's 
popularly  elected  representatives  to  participate  directly  in 
governing  the  kingdom.  Minister  Dandl  was  directed  to 
form  a  new  ministry  with  some  Socialist  members.  It  was 
announced  also  that  a  proportional  franchise  system  was  to 
be  introduced  and  the  upper  chamber  reformed  along  pro- 
gressive lines. 

The  government  of  Baden  announced  that  steps  would 
be  taken  to  abolish  the  three-class  franchise  and  to  intro- 
duce the  proportional  system.  In  Wiirttemberg  measures 
were  prepared  providing  that  the  kingdom's  representa- 
tives in  the  Federal  Council  should  take  their  instructions 
direct  from  the  people's  elected  representatives,  instead  of 
from  the  government.  A  democratization  of  the  first  cham- 
ber was  also  promised. 

122 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

The  Grand  Duke  of  Oldenburg,  in  the  address  from  the 
throne  at  the  opening  of  the  Landtag,  declared  that  re- 
forms were  contemplated  giving  the  people  increased  power 
to  decide  all  important  questions  of  state.  The  Grand  Duke 
of  Saxe-Weimar  accepted  the  resignation  of  his  whole  min- 
istry and  announced  that  a  new  ministry  would  be  formed 
from  among  the  members  of  the  Diet.  The  Diet  at  Darm- 
stadt unanimously  adopted  measures  providing  for  a  par- 
liamentary form  of  government  in  Hesse. 

But  while  these  concessions  were  being  made  at  home, 
Schrecklichkeit  continued  to  rule  unhampered  on  the  sea. 
The  Leinster,  a  passenger  boat  plying  between  Kingston 
and  Holyhead,  was  torpedoed  by  a  submarine,  and  480  of 
her  6%"]  passengers  were  lost.  The  wave  of  indignation  in 
enemy  countries  following  this  act  was  reflected  at  home 
in  an  uneasy  feeling  that  the  new  Chancellor  could  as  little 
curb  militarism  as  could  his  predecessors.  Ludendorff,  too, 
had  regained  his  lost  nerve.  He  told  Prince  Max  that  the 
military  situation  was  better  than  he  had  believed  when 
he  recommended  that  an  armistice  be  requested.  Minister 
of  War  General  Scheuch  had  promised  to  send  six  hundred 
thousand  new  troops  to  the  front. 

The  Chancellor's  position  was  also  rendered  more  diffi- 
cult at  this  time  by  an  agitation  for  a  levee  en  masse  begun 
by  some  fire-eating  Germans  of  the  old  school.  The  possi- 
bility of  a  military  dictatorship  was  discussed,  and  an  ap- 
peal was  made  to  "the  spirit  of  181 3."  The  natural  result 
was  to  increase  the  prevailing  hostility  to  everybody  in 
authority,  whether  he  had  been  connected  with  the  former 
governments  or  not. 

The  Independent  Socialists  and  their  Spartacan  breth- 
ren grew  bolder.  Dr.  Oskar  Cohn,  who  had  made  a  speech 
in  the  Reichstag  four  months  earlier,  denouncing  the  war 
as  "a  HohenzoUern  family  affair,"  now  openly  declared  in 
the  same  assembly  that  the  Kaiser  must  go. 

"The  question  can  no  longer  be  evaded,"  he  said.  "Shall 
it  be  war  with  the  Hohenzollerns  or  peace  without  the  Ho- 
henzollerns?  World-revolution  will  follow  on  world-im- 
perialism  and   world-militarism,    and   we   shall   overcome 

123 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

them.  We  extend  our  hands  to  our  friends  beyond  the  fron- 
tiers in  this  struggle." 

Liebknecht,  released  from  prison  on  October  20th  by  a 
general  amnesty,  celebrated  his  release  by  attacking  the 
Kaiser  and  the  government  that  released  him.  On  October 
27th,  he  addressed  a  half  dozen  Independent  Socialist  meet- 
ings, and  called  for  a  revolution  of  the  proletariat  and  the 
overthrow  of  the  capitalists  and  bourgeoisie  of  all  lands.  He 
closed  each  speech  with  cries  of  "Down  with  the  Hohenzol- 
lerns!"  and  "Long  live  the  Socialist  Republic!"  Nothing 
could  more  clearly  demonstrate  the  helplessness  of  the  gov- 
ernment than  the  fact  that  Liebknecht  was  neither  compelled 
to  stop  talking  nor  arrested.  There  were  outbreaks  of  riot- 
ing in  Berlin  on  the  same  day,  but  they  were  largely  due  to 
the  unwise  and  provocatory  measures  of  the  police,  who  to 
the  last  preserved  a  steadfast  loyalty  to  the  government  and 
to  that  grim  sense  of  duty  that  had  marked  the  Prussian 
Beamier  in  former  days. 

The  Reichstag  passed  on  last  reading  the  measures  sent 
from  the  Federal  Council  to  put  into  effect  the  Kaiser's  rec- 
ommendations of  September  30th.  Their  most  important 
provision  was  one  placing  the  military  command  under  con- 
trol of  the  civil  government,  which  had  been  demanded  by 
the  Majority  Socialists  as  one  of  their  conditions  for  par- 
ticipation in  the  government.  The  Kaiser  sent  to  the  Impe- 
rial Chancellor  on  October  28th  the  following  decree : 

'T  send  your  Grand  Ducal  Highness  in  the  enclosure 
the  measures  for  the  alteration  of  the  Imperial  Constitution 
and  of  the  laws  concerning  the  representative  powers  of  the 
Chancellor,  of  March  17,  1878,  for  immediate  promulga- 
tion. It  is  my  wish,  in  connection  with  this  step,  which  is  so 
full  of  meaning  for  the  German  people,  to  give  expression 
to  the  feelings  that  move  me.  Prepared  by  a  number  of  acts 
of  the  government,  a  new  order  of  things  now  becomes  ef- 
fective, transferring  fundamental  rights  from  the  person 
of  the  Kaiser  to  the  people.  Thus  there  is  closed  a  period 
which  will  endure  in  honor  in  the  eyes  of  future  generations. 

"Despite  all  struggles  between  inherited  powers  and 
forces  striving  to  raise  themselves,  this  period  discloses  itself 

124 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

unforgettably  in  the  wonderful  accomplishments  of  the  war. 
In  the  fearful  storms  of  the  four  years  of  the  war,  however, 
old  formulae  have  been  shattered,  not  to  leave  ruins,  but 
rather  to  give  way  to  new  forms  of  life.  In  view  of  the  ac- 
complishments of  this  period,  the  German  people  can  de- 
mand that  no  right  shall  be  withheld  from  them  which  in- 
sures a  free  and  happy  future.  The  measures  proposed  by 
the  allied  governments^  and  now  accepted  by  the  Reichstag 
owe  their  existence  to  this  conviction. 

"I  accept  these  decisions  of  the  people's  representatives, 
together  with  my  exalted  allies,  in  the  firm  desire  to  co- 
operate, as  far  as  lies  in  my  power,  in  rendering  them  effect- 
ive, and  in  the  conviction  that  I  shall  thus  serve  the  inter- 
ests of  the  German  people. 

"The  post  of  Kaiser  means  service  of  the  people  {Das 
Kaiseravit  ist  Dienst  am  Volke). 

"May  the  new  order  release  all  good  forces  which  our 
people  need  in  order  to  endure  the  hard  trials  that  have  been 
visited  upon  the  Empire,  and  to  win  the  way,  with  firm 
step,  from  out  the  dark  present  to  a  bright  future." 

These  were  fine  phrases,  but,  like  all  other  pronuncia- 
mentos  and  reforms  of  October,  they  came  too  late.  The  po- 
litical censorship  had  recently  been  relaxed,  and  the  people, 
ignorant  though  they  may  have  been  of  actual  conditions 
at  home,  knew  what  was  going  on  within  the  borders  of 
their  greatest  ally.  Ten  days  earlier  a  strike  had  been  begun 
at  Prague  as  a  peace  demonstration,  and  had  involved  much 
of  Bohemia  and  Moravia.  At  Budapest  revolution  was  in 
the  air,  and  the  Magyar  deputies  of  the  Parliament  were 
openly  discussing  the  question  of  declaring  Hungary's  in- 
dependence. On  October  1 7th,  Kaiser  Karl  announced  that 
steps  were  to  be  taken  to  reorganize  the  Monarchy  on  a  fed- 
eralized basis. 

Two  days  later  President  Wilson  rejected  Baron  Burian's 
peace  offer.  He  declared  that  the  United  States  Government 
had  recognized  the  Czecho-Slovak  state  and  the  aspirations 
of  the  Jugo-Slavs,  and  he  was  therefore  "no  longer  at  lib- 
erty to  accept  the  mere  autonomy  of  these  peoples  as  a  basis 

*Here  meaning  merely  the  German  federal  states. 

125 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

of  peace,  but  is  obliged  to  insist  that  they  and  not  he  shall  be 
the  judges  of  what  action  on  the  part  of  the  Austro- Hun- 
garian Government  will  satisfy  their  aspirations  and  their 
conception  of  their  rights  and  destiny  as  members  of  the 
family  of  nations." 

Count  Michael  Karolyi,  leader  of  the  opposition  in 
Hungary,  on  the  same  day,  in  a  speech  in  the  lower  house 
of  Parliament  at  Budapest,  attacked  the  alliance  of  Austria- 
Hungary  with  Germany.  He  admitted  that  the  Central  Pow- 
ers had  lost  the  war,  and  appealed  to  his  countrymen  to  "try 
to  save  the  peace."  A  memorial  was  sent  to  Kaiser  Karl  de- 
claring that  "Hungary  must  return  to  its  autonomy  and 
complete  independence." 

The  Czechs  were  already  in  virtual  control  in  Prague. 
Magyar  Hungary  was  rotten  with  Bolshevism,  the  fruits  of 
the  propaganda  of  returned  soldiers  and  Russian  agents. 
Croatian  soldiers  at  Fiume  had  revolted.  Baron  Burian  re- 
tired and  was  succeeded  by  Count  Andrassy. 

Much  of  this  was  known  to  all  Germans  when  the  Kaiser's 
decree  was  issued.  But  they  did  not  know  what  the  Kaiser 
and  his  advisers  knew,  and  they  did  not  know  why  Luden- 
dorff  had  deserted  the  sinking  ship  a  day  earlier,  sending 
his  resignation  to  the  Kaiser  and  being  succeeded  as  Quar- 
termaster-General by  General  Groener.  All  indications 
had,  indeed,  pointed  to  the  defection  of  Austria,  but  so  long 
as  it  did  not  come  the  Germans — that  is,  such  of  them  as  had 
not  completely  lost  hope  or  been  infected  with  international- 
ist doctrines — still  had  a  straw  to  cling  to. 

On  October  26th  Kaiser  Karl  informed  the  German  Em- 
peror that  he  intended  to  ask  for  peace  "within  twenty-four 
hours."  He  invited  Germany  to  join  in  the  request.  Before 
the  German  reply  could  be  received  Count  Andrassy  sent  a 
note  to  Washington  accepting  President  Wilson's  conditions 
for  an  armistice  and  for  peace,  and  declaring  that  Austria- 
Hungary  was  ready,  "without  awaiting  the  result  of  other 
negotiations,  to  enter  into  negotiations  upon  peace  between 
Austria-Hungary  and  the  states  in  the  opposing  group,  and 
for  an  immediate  armistice  upon  all  the  Dual  Monarchy's 
fronts." 

126 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

On  October  29th  the  government  at  Vienna  issued  a  re- 
port declaring  that  a  note  had  been  sent  to  Secretary  Lan- 
sing, asking  him  \o  "have  the  goodness  to  intervene  with 
the  President  of  the  United  States  in  order  that,  in  the  in- 
terests of  humanity  as  well  as  in  the  interests  of  all  those 
peoples  who  live  in  Austria-Hungary,  an  immediate  ar- 
mistice may  be  concluded  on  all  fronts,  and  for  an  overture 
that  immediate  negotiations  for  peace  may  follow."  A  semi- 
official statement  was  issued  the  same  day  in  an  attempt  to 
make  it  appear  that  the  Dual  Monarchy  had  not  been 
recreant  to  its  treaty  agreement  not  to  conclude  a  separate 
peace.  Count  Andrassy's  note  to  Lansing,  it  was  explained, 
did  not  "necessarily  mean  an  offer  of  a  separate  peace.  It 
means  merely  that  Austria- Hungary  is  ready  to  act  sepa- 
rately in  the  interests  of  the  reestablishment  of  peace.'* 

The  fine  distinction  between  "separate  peace"  and  "sepa- 
rate action  to  reestablish  peace"  could  deceive  nobody.  All 
Germany  staggered  under  the  blow,  and  while  she  was  still 
staggering,  there  came  another.  Turkey  quit.  Germany  stood 
alone,  deserted,  betrayed. 

Fast  on  the  heels  of  the  Austrian  collapse  came  the  terror 
of  defeated  governments — revolution.  The  ink  had  not  dried 
on  Vienna's  note  on  October  29th  before  students  and  work- 
ingmen  began  assembling  in  front  of  the  Parliament  build- 
ings in  the  Austrian  capital.  Officers  in  uniform  addressed 
cheering  thousands,  and  called  on  the  soldiers  among  their 
hearers  to  remove  the  national  colors  from  their  caps  and 
uniforms.  President  Dinghofer  of  the  National  Council  de- 
clared that  the  council  would  take  over  the  whole  administra- 
tion of  the  country,  "but  without  the  Habsburgs."  When, 
on  the  same  afternoon,  the  National  Assembly  came  together 
for  its  regular  session,  a  crowd  gathered  in  front  of  the  Diet 
and  cheered  a  huge  red  flag  unfurled  by  workingmen  on  the 
very  steps  of  the  Diet  building. 

Revolution  is  both  contagious  and  spontaneous  in  defeat. 
The  news  from  Vienna  was  followed  by  reports  of  revolution 
in  Hungary.  In  Budapest  laborers  plundered  the  military  de- 
pots and  armed  themselves.  InPrague  the  Prager  Haus-Regi- 
ment,  No.  28,  took  charge  of  the  revolution.  This  was  one 

127 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

of  the  regiments  that  had  been  disbanded  in  191 5  for  treach- 
ery in  the  Carpathians.  Now  it  came  into  its  own.  Count 
Michael  Karolyi  telegraphed  on  October  31st  to  the  Berlin 
Tageblatt: 

"  Revolution  in  Budapest.  National  Council  has  taken 
over  the  government.  Military  and  police  acknowledge  Na- 
tional Council  completely.  Inhabitants  rejoicing." 

The  message  was  signed  by  Karolyi  as  president  of  the 
National  Council. 

The  revolution  in  Bohemia  exercised  a  particularly  de- 
pressing effect  upon  loyal  Germans  because  of  its  outspoken 
anti-German  character.  Even  in  these  first  days  the  Czech- 
ish newspapers  began  discussing  the  division  of  German 
territories.  The  Vccer  demanded  Vienna  as  a  part  of  the 
new  Czecho-Slovak  state  on  the  ground  that  a  majority  of 
the  city's  inhabitants  or  their  ancestors  originally  came  from 
Bohemia  and  Moravia.  The  Narodini  Listy  gave  notice  that 
the  Germans  of  Northern  Bohemia  would  not  be  permitted 
to  join  Germany.  These  were  among  the  more  moderate  de- 
mands made  by  this  press. 

"What  will  the  Kaiser  do?"  asked  the  Berlin  Vorivdrts 
in  its  leading  article  on  the  last  day  of  October.  The  article 
voiced  a  question  which  all  but  the  most  extreme  reaction- 
aries had  been  asking  for  two  weeks.  Even  men  devoted  to 
the  monarch  personally  and  themselves  convinced  monarch- 
ists in  principle  realized  that  the  only  hope  of  securing  a 
just  peace  lay  in  sacrificing  Kaiser  Wilhelm.  Scheidemann, 
the  Socialist  Secretary  of  State,  wrote  to  Chancellor  Prince 
Max,  declaring  that  the  Kaiser  must  retire,  and  that  his 
letter  had  been  written  "in  agreement  with  the  leaders  of 
the  Socialist  party  and  its  representatives  in  the  Reichstag." 
Up  to  the  time  of  the  publication  of  the  Vorwdrts  leader  the 
authorities  had  forbidden  any  public  discussion  of  the  Kais- 
er's abdication.  The  censorship  restrictions  on  this  subject 
were  now  removed  and  the  press  was  permitted  to  discuss  it 
freely. 

But  while  many  of  the  party  leaders  were  already  inward- 
ly convinced  that  the  supreme  sacrifice  of  abdication  must 
be  made  by  the  Kaiser,  none  of  the  Empire's  political  par- 

128 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

ties  except  the  two  Socialist  parties  considered  it  politically 
expedient  to  make  the  demand.  Even  the  Progressives, 
farthest  to  the  left  of  all  the  bourgeois  parties,  not  only  re- 
fused to  follow  the  Socialists'  lead,  but  went  on  record  as 
opposed  to  abdication.  At  a  convention  of  the  party  in 
Greater  Berlin  on  November  6th,  Dr.  Mugdan,  one  of  the 
party's  prominent  Reichstag  deputies,  reporting  the  attitude 
of  the  party  on  the  question  of  abdication,  said : 

"The  Progressives  do  not  desire  to  sow  further  unrest 
and  confusion  among  the  German  people." 

This  was  the  attitude  of  a  majority  of  the  leaders  among 
the  people.  It  was  dictated  less  by  loyalty  to  the  sovereign 
than  by  a  realization  that  the  disintegrating  propaganda  of 
the  Internationalists  had  affected  so  large  a  part  of  the 
people  that  the  abdication  of  the  Kaiser  would  almost  in- 
evitably bring  the  collapse  of  the  state.  They  could  not  yet 
realize  that  this  collapse  was  inevitable  in  any  case,  nor  that 
the  number  of  those  devoted  to  the  Kaiser  was  comparative- 
ly so  small  that  it  was  of  little  consequence  whether  he  re- 
mained on  the  throne  or  abdicated. 

The  Kaiser  himself,  as  will  be  seen  later,^  was  mainly 
moved  by  the  same  considerations.  He  believed  chaos  would 
certainly  follow  his  abdication.  It  is  also  far  from  improb- 
able that  he  had  not  yet  abandoned  all  hope  of  military 
victory.  The  German  army  leaders,  in  trying  to  deceive  the 
people  into  a  belief  that  a  successful  termination  of  the  war 
was  still  possible,  had  doubtless  deceived  their  motiarch  as 
well.  Possibly  they  had  even  deceived  themselves.  Field 
Marshal  von  Hindenburg  sent  a  message  to  the  press  'on 
November  3d,  wherein  he  declared: 

"Our  honor,  freedom  and  future  are  now  at  stake.  We 
are  invincible  if  we  are  united.  If  the  German  a,nny  be 
strongly  supported  by  the  will  of  the  people,  our  Fatherland 
will  brave  all  onslaughts." 

But  while  Hindenburg  was  writing  the  situation  was 
altering  for  the  worse  with  every  hour.  Kaiser  Karl  had 
fled  from  Vienna.  German  officers  had  been  attacked  in  Bu- 
charest.  Bavarian  troops  had  been   refused  permission  to 

^Vide  chapter  X. 

129 


if 
AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

use  railways  in  Austrian  Tirol.  German  troops  had  been 
disarmed  and  robbed  in  Bohemia  and  even  in  Hungary.  The 
German  armies  in  the  West  were  still  fighting  bravely,  but 
even  the  ingeniously  worded  communiques  of  Great  Head- 
quarters could  not  conceal  the  fact  that  they  were  being 
steadily  thrown  back,  with  heavy  loss  of  prisoners  and  guns. 
Rumors  of  serious  revolts  in  the  fleet  were  circulating  from 
mouth  to  mouth  and,  after  the  manner  of  rumors,  growing  as 
they  circulated.  Even  the  monarchist,  Conservative  Lokal- 
Anzeiger  had  to  admit  the  gravity  of  the  situation.  On 
November  6th  it  declared  that  "a  mighty  stream"  was  rol- 
ling through  the  land,  and  every  one  who  had  eyes  to  see 
and  ears  to  hear  could  perceive  "whither  this  current  is  set- 
ting." It  continued : 

"  New  factors  of  great  importance  have  increased  the  con- 
fusion :  the  collapse  of  our  allies,  their  complete  submission 
to  the  will  of  our  enemies,  the  multiplication  thereby  of  the 
military  dangers  that  surround  us,  and,  not  least,  the  cat- 
astrophic dissolution  of  all  order  in  Austria-Hungary.  The 
blind  fanaticism  of  Bolshevism,  which  would  with  brutal 
force  tear  down  ever}'^thing  in  its  way  and  destroy  in  Ger- 
many as  well  every  remnant  of  authority,  is  planning  now, 
in  the  very  moment  when  the  final  decision  must  be  reached, 
to  play  into  the  hands  of  our  enemies  through  internal  revo- 
lution. We  will  not  at  this  time  discuss  whether  the  authori- 
ties have  done  their  complete  duty  in  putting  down  this 
movement,  which  everyone  could  see  growing.  It  is  enough 
to  say  that  the  danger  is  here,  and  duty  demands  that  we 
stand  together  from  left  to  right,  from  the  top  to  the  bottom, 
to  render  these  destroying  elements  harmless  or,  if  it  be  too 
late  for  that,  to  strike  them  to  the  ground. 

"And  another  thing  must  be  said.  Just  as  the  people's 
government  has  undertaken  to  bring  about  a  peace  that  does 
not  destroy  the  vital  interests  of  the  German  people,  *  *  *  it 
must  just  as  energetically  endeavor  to  protect  us  from  in- 
ternal collapse  with  all  the  strength  and  all  the  authority 
which  its  constitution  as  a  people's  government  confers  upon 
it.  *  *  *  When,  as  now,  the  overthrow  of  all  existing  insti- 
tutions is  being  preached,  when  the  people's  government  is 

130 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

disregarded  and  recourse  is  had  to  force,  the  government 
must  realize  that  there  is  but  one  thing  to  do.  The  people, 
whose  representatives  the  members  of  government  are,  want 
concrete  evidence  that  an  insignificant  minority  will  not  be 
permitted  to  trample  upon  the  institutions  of  state  and  so- 
ciety under  whose  protection  we  have  heretofore  lived.  *  *  * 
The  German  Empire  is  not  yet  ripe  for  the  disciples  of  Len- 
ine  and  Trotzky." 

General  von  Hellingrath,  Bavarian  Minister  of  War,  is- 
sued a  proclamation  calling  on  the  people  to  preserve  order 
and  not  to  lose  their  confidence  in  the  government.  A  report 
that  Bavarian  troops  had  been  sent  to  the  North  Tirol  to 
protect  Bavaria's  borders  against  possible  aggression  by 
Czechish  and  Jugo-Slavic  troops  of  the  former  ally  further 
depressed  all  Germans,  and  particularly  the  South  Germans. 

The  new  government  made  an  appeal  to  the  people's  rea- 
son. In  a  proclamation  issued  on  November  4th  and  signed 
by  Prince  Max  and  all  other  members  of  the  cabinet,  includ- 
ing Scheidemann,  it  called  attention  to  the  parliamentary 
reforms  already  accomplished  and  summoned  the  people  to 
give  their  fullest  support  to  the  government.  These  reforms 
were: 

Equal  franchise  in  Prussia;  the  formation  of  a  govern- 
ment from  the  majority  parties  of  the  Reichstag;  the  Chan- 
cellor and  his  ministers  could  retain  office  only  if  they  pos- 
sessed the  confidence  of  the  Reichstag  and  hence  of  the 
people ;  declarations  of  war  and  conclusions  of  peace  now  re- 
quired the  assent  of  the  Reichstag;  the  military  had  been 
subordinated  to  the  civil  authorities;  a  broad  amnesty  had 
been  declared,  and  the  freedom  of  assemblage  and  of  the 
press  assured. 

"The  alteration  of  Germany  into  a  people's  state,  which 
shall  not  stand  in  the  rear  of  any  state  in  the  world  in  re- 
spect of  political  freedom  and  social  reforms,  will  be  carried 
further  with  decision,"  said  the  proclamation. 

It  was  a  very  respectable  array  of  real  reforms  that  was 
thus  set  forth.  If  they  had  come  a  few  months  earlier  the 
subsequent  course  of  Germany's  and  the  whole  world's  his- 
tory would  doubtless  have  been  changed.  But,  unknown  to 
the  great  mass  of  Germans  except  through  wild  rumor,  rev- 
olution had  already  come  and  the  German  Empire  was  tot- 
tering to  its  fall.. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

A  Revolt  Which  Became  a 
Revolution.^ 

THE  elements  that  had  long  been  working  to  bring 
about  a  revolution  had  for  months  been  nearer  their 
goal  than  even  they  themselves  suspected,  but  they 
were  nevertheless  not  ready  for  the  final  step  when  events, 
taking  the  bit  into  their-  teeth,  ran  away  with  the  revolu- 
tionists along  the  very  road  which  they  had  wanted  to 
follow. 

It  lies  in  the  nature  of  the  employment  of  those  that  go 
down  to  the  sea  in  ships  that  they  are  more  resolute  and 
reckless  than  their  shore-keeping  brothers,  and  less  amen- 
able to  discipline.  They  are  also  subject  to  certain  cosmo- 
politan, international  influences  which  do  not  further  blind 
patriotism.  Furthermore,  the  percentage  of  rude,  violent 
and  even  criminally  inclined  men  is  proportionately  higher 
afloat  than  ashore.  The  Russian  revolution  of  1905  started 
among  the  sailors  in  Cronstadt.  The  same  men  set  the  ex- 
ample in  atrocities  against  officers  in  the  Russian  revolution 
of  191 7.  Sailors  played  a  prominent  part  in  the  Portuguese 
revolution,  and  there  are  few  fleets  in  the  world  without 
their  history  of  rough  deeds  done  by  mutinous  mariners. 

OnOctober28th  there  came  an  order  from  the  Admiralty  / 
at  Berlin  that  the  fleet  was  to  be  prepared  for  a  cruise  into 
the  North  Sea.  Just  what  this  cruise  was  intended  to  ac- 
complish is  not  clear.  High  naval  officers  have  assured  the 
writer  that  it  was  to  have  been  primarily  a  reconnaissance, 
and  that  no  naval  battle  was  intended  or  desired.  The  report 
circulated  among  the  crews,  however,  that  a  last  desperate 
stand  was  to  be  made,  in  which  the  whole  fleet  would  be 

133 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

sacrificed,  but  in  which  as  great  losses  as  possibfe  were  to  be 
inflicted  on  the  British  Fleet.  This  was  hot  at  all  to  the  liking 
of  men  demoralized  by  long  idleness — an  idleness,  more- 
over, in  which  Bolshevist  Satans  had  found  much  work  for 
them  to  do. 

Just  at  this  time,  too,  came  a  gruesome  story  which  fur- 
ther unfavorably  affected  the  crews'  morale.  A  submarine 
cruiser,  it  was  reported,  had  become  entangled  in  a  net,  but 
had  freed  itself  and  reached  port,  dragging  the  net  with  it. 
When  the  net  was  pulled  ashore,  it  was  declared,  three  small 
U-boats  were  found  fast  in  it,  their  crews  dead  of  suffoca- 
tion. The  story  was  probably  false,  but  it  increased  the  men's 
opposition  to  the  cruise  ordered.  They  were  also  disquieted 
by  the  fact  that  large  numbers  of  floating  mines  were  being 
brought  aboard  the  speedier  cruisers. 

Rumblings  of  the  coming  storm  were  heard  first  on  .board 
the  battleships  Thuringen  and  Helgoland,  a  part  of  whose 
crews  flatly  refused  to  obey  orders  to  carry  out  the  cruise 
ordered  by  the  Admiralty.  The  mutiny  was  not  general 
even  aboard  these  ships,  and  it  was  quickly  quelled.  The 
embers,  however,  smouldered  for  three  days  and  then  burst 
into  flame. 

Alone  among  the  great  revolutions  of  the  world,  the  Ger- 
man revolution  was  the  work  of  the  humblest  of  the  pro- 
letariat, unplanned  and  unguided  by  bourgeois  elements.  It 
came  from  below  not  only  in  the  figurative  but  also  in  the 
literal  sense  of  the  word,  for  it  came  from  the  very  hold  of  a 
battleship.  It  was  the  stokers  of  the  Markgraf  at  Kiel  who 
set  rolling  the  stone  which  became  the  avalanche  of  revolu- 
tion. 

The  crews  of  the  Markgraf  and  of  some  of  the  other  ships 
in  the  Kiel  squadron  demanded  that  the  mines  be  taken 
ashore  and  the  projected  cruise  abandoned.  The  officers  re- 
fused their  demands.  Thereupon  the  stokers  of  the  Markgraf 
left  the  ship  and  went  ashore.  This  was  on  Sunday  morning, 
November  3d.  The  stokers  were  joined  by  members  of  other 
ships'  crews  ashore  at  the  time,  and  a  meeting  was  held. 
When  the  stokers  returned  to  the  Markgraf  they  found  her 
guarded  by  marines  and  they  were  not  permitted  to  come 

134 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

aboard.  They  boarded  another  ship  nearby  and  demanded 
their  dinner.  Messtime  had  passed  while  they  were  holding 
their  meeting  ashore,  and  their  demand  was  refused.  The 
stokers  broke  into  the  provision-rooms  and  helped  them- 
selves. Thereupon  the  mutineers,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
in  number,  were  arrested  and  taken  to  the  military  prison  in 
the  center  of  the  city.  All  the  small  boats  of  the  Markgraf 
were  taken  ashore  to  prevent  the  rest  of  the  crew  from  reach- 
ing land. 

When  the  arrest  of  the  mutinous  stokers  became  known 
aboard  their  battleship  there  was  an  outburst  of  indigna- 
tion. The  officers,  in  sending  the  boats  ashore,  had  over- 
looked an  old  barge  which  lay  alongside  the  ship.  As  many 
of  the  crew  as  the  barge  could  carry  clambered  into  it  and 
rowed  ashore,  using  boards  as  paddles.  Then  they  sent  the 
small  boats  back  to  bring  ashore  the  rest  of  their  comrades. 
At  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  practically  the  entire  crew  of 
the  Markgraf  held  a  meeting  on  the  large  promenade  and 
maneuver  grounds  near  the  harbor.  A  great  many  members 
of  other  ships'  crews  attended  this  meeting.  Violent  speeches 
were  made  and  it  was  decided  to  demand  the  immediate  re- 
lease of  the  Markgraf s  stokers.  Shortly  before  six  o'clock 
the  inflamed  mob — it  was  already  little  else — went  to  the 
Waldwiese  (city  park),  where  a  company  of  the  First  Ma- 
rine Division  was  quartered.  The  mutineers  demolished  the 
barracks,  released  several  men  who  were  locked  up  for  minor 
military  ofi'enses,  and  stole  all  the  arms  and  ammunition  in 
the  place. 

An  ordered  procession  then  started  toward  the  center  of 
the  city.  It  grew  steadily  in  size  as  it  went  through  accretions 
from  sailors,  marines  and  other  members  of  war-vessels' 
crews,  and  also  from  the  riotous  and  criminal  elements 
common  to  all  larger  cities  and  especially  to  harbor-cities. 

The  military  authorities  had  meanwhile  made  prepara- 
tions to  deal  with  the  mutineers.  As  early  as  four  o'clock 
erhohte  Alarmbereitschaft  (literally,  "increased  readiness 
to  respond  to  an  alarm")  had  been  ordered.  Buglers  and 
drummers  passed  through  the  streets,  proclaiming  the  order 
and  warning  against  demonstrations.^ 

135 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

The  mutineers'  procession  reached  the  central  railway 
station  about  7  P.M.^  and  proceeded,  its  numbers  increasing 
steadily,  through  the  Holsteinstrasse  to  the  Market  Place. 
It  passed  through  the  Danische  Strasse  and  Brunswiger- 
strasse  toward  Feldstrasse,  in  which  was  situated  the  mili- 
tary prison  where  the  Markgraf  stokers  were  confined.  The 
procession  had  by  this  time  become  a  howling,  whistling, 
singing  mob,  whose  progress  could  be  heard  many  blocks 
away.  Passers-by  were  compelled  to  join  the  procession.  The 
entrances  to  the  Hospitalstrasse  and  to  the  Karlstrasse  at  the 
so-called  Hojfnung,  near  the  prison,  were  guarded  by  strong 
military  forces,  and  the  prison  itself  was  protected  by  a 
machine-gun  detachment.  Firemen  were  also  ready  to  turn 
their  hoses  on  the  mob. 

The  procession  reached  the  Hojfnung  anc^  prepared  to 
force  its  way  into  the  Karlstrasse.  The  commander  of  the 
troops  stationed  there  ordered  the  mob  to  halt.  His  order 
was  disregarded.  The  troops  fired  a  blind  volley  over  the 
heads  of  the  mutineers,  who  nevertheless  forged  steadily 
ahead.  The  next  volley  was  poured  into  the  ranks  of  the 
marchers.  It  was  followed  by  shrieks  of  rage,  by  scattering 
shots  from  the  mutineers  and  by  some  stone-throwing.  There 
was  a  sharp  conflict  for  two  or  three  minutes,  and  then  the 
mob,  howling  and  cursing,  scattered  panic-striken.^  Eight 
of  them  lay  dead  on  the  street,  and  twenty-nine  were 
wounded.  The  officer  in  command  of  the  troops  and  one 
lieutenant  were  also  fatally  injured,  the  former  by  knife- 
thrusts  and  stones. 

An  hour  later  the  street  was  quiet,  and  the  night  passed 
without  further  disturbances.  The  city  was  strongly  pa- 
trolled, but  otherwise  there  was  nothing  to  indicate  that  the 
curtain  had  gone  up  on  the  world's  greatest  and  most  tragic 
revolution. 

The  leaders  of  the  mutineers  spent  most  of  Sunday  night 
and  Monday  morning  in  conference.  A  Soldiers*  Council 

^In  all  the  clashes  that  marked  the  subsequent  course  of  the  German  revo- 
lution not  one  instance  can  be  found  where  the  enemies  of  authority  failed 
to  run  like  sheep  before  loyal  troops  and  determined  officers.  The  "martyrs 
of  the  revolution"  were  mainly  killed  by  stray  bullets  or  overtaken  by  bullets 
while  they  were  running  away. 

136 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

was  formed — the  first  in  Germany.  The  military  governor  of 
Kiel  issued  a  proclamation,  calling  upon  the  mutineers  to 
formulate  and  preseiit  their  demands.  They  complied.  Their 
demands  were :  The  release  of  all  persons  arrested  for 
breach  of  discipline;  recognition  of  the  Soldiers'  Council; 
abolishing  of  the  duty  to  salute  superiors  ;^  officers  and  men 
to  have  the  same  rations;  the  proposed  expedition  of  the 
fleet  to  be  abandoned,  and,  in  general,  better  treatment  of 
the  ships'  crews.  The  governor  accepted  all  these  demands, 
and  announcement  was  made  to  that  effect  by  wireless  to  all 
ships  in  the  Kiel  squadron.  The  mutineers  declared  them- 
selves satisfied,  and  promised  to  resume  their  duties,  to  obey 
orders  and  to  preserve  order  in  the  city  and  board  their  ships. 

In  circumstances  at  all  approaching  the  normal  this  would 
have  marked  the  end  of  the  revolt.  But  all  the  circumstances 
were  abnormal.  The  men  of  the  navy  had,  indeed,  suffered 
fewer  actual  privations  and  hardships  than  those  of  the  land 
forces,  but  even  they  had  been  underfed.  Their  families,  in 
common  with  all  Germans  at  home,  had  endured  bitter  want, 
and  had  written  thousands  of  complaining  letters  to  their 
relatives  afloat.^  The  Socialist  cantagion — particularly  of 
the  Independent  brand — had  affected  wide  circles  among 
sailors  and  marines.  Indeed,  the  chief  field  of  operations  of 
the  Riihles,  Haases,  Cohns  and  their  Russian  helpers  had 
been  the  navy,  where  idle  hands  invited  the  finding  of  mis- 
chief for  them  to  do.  The  morale  of  the  members  of  the  navy 
had  also,  in  common  with  the  morale  of  the  land  troops  and 
of  the  whole  German  people,  been  badly  shaken  by  the  re- 
verses that  began  in  July,  191 8,  and  by  the  desertion  of 
Germany  by  her  allies. 

In  addition  to  and  above  all  this  there  were  two  fatal 
factors :  authority,  the  corner  stone  of  all  civilized  govern- 

*It  is  difficult  to  understand  why  Socialists  attach  such  importance  to  this 
question.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  very  first  decree  issued  by  Kerensky 
was  his  famous  (and  fatal)  "Prikaz  No.  i,"  abolishing  the  salute.  The  So- 
cialists, it  is  true,  hate  authority  as  embodied  in  a  state,  yet  they  voluntarily 
submit  to  a  party  authority  quite  as  rigid  as  that  of  Prussian  militarism. 

^Complaining  letters  from  home  to  the  men  in  the  trenches  were  early 
recognized  by  the  authorities  as  a  source  of  danger  for  the  spirit  of  the 
troops. 

137 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

ments,  had  been  shaken,  and  the  mutineers  had  learned  their 
own  strength.  If  horses  were  sentient  beings  with  means  of 
communicating  their  thoughts,  and  if  all  the  horses  of  a 
certain  community  suddenly  discovered  that  they  were  real- 
ly immeasurably  stronger  than  their  masters,  it  would  re- 
quire no  great  effort  of  imagination  to  realize  that  few 
horses  in  that  community  would  thereafter  suffer  themselves 
to  be  harnessed.  The  only  ones  that  would  submit  would  be 
a  small  number  of  especially  intelligent  animals  who  could 
look  ahead  to  the  winter,  with  deep  snow  covering  the  pas- 
tures, with  no  straw-bedded  stalls  and  walls  set  up  against 
the  cold  winds. 

So  it  was  in  Kiel.  The  mutineers  had  made  their  first  kill ; 
they  had  tasted  blood.  From  all  the  ships  of  the  squadron 
they  streamed  into  the  city.  Patrols,  established  to  maintain 
order,  began  going  over  to  the  revolting  seamen.  The  mu- 
tineers secured  more  arms  and  ammunition  from  the  bar- 
racks at  the  shipyards  and  the  soldiers  stationed  there  joined 
them.  In  the  afternoon  (Monday)  the  mutineers  joined  for 
a  giant  demonstration.  A  procession  numbering  possibly 
twenty  thousand  sailors,  marines  and  soldiers,  with  a  band 
at  the  head,  marched  to  the  different  civil  and  military  pris- 
ons and  lockups  and  released  the  prisoners,  who  joined  the 
procession.  The  civil  and  military  authorities  of  Kiel,  gravely 
disquieted,  had  meanwhile  communicated  with  the  govern- 
ment at  Berlin  and  asked  for  help.  The  government  replied 
that  it  would  send  Conrad  Haussmann  and  Gustav  Noske. 
Haussmann,  who  had  for  many  years  been  one  of  the  leaders 
of  the  Clerical  (Catholic)  party  in  the  Reichstag,  was  a 
member  of  Prince  Max's  cabinet.  He  was  chosen  as  the  gov- 
ernment's official  representative.  Noske,  who  was  later  to 
demonstrate  himself  to  be  one  of  the  few  really  able  and 
forceful  men  of  Germany,  had  been  for  some  years  a  member 
of  the  Reichstag  as  Majority  Socialist.  A  woodworker  by 
trade,  he  had  as  a  youth  lifted  himself  out  of  the  ruck  of  his 
party  by  energy,  ambition,  hard  work  and  straightforward- 
ness. He  became  a  party  secretary  and  later  editor  of  a  So- 
cialist paper  in  Chemnitz.^  Although  not  so  widely  known  as 

*The  typical  career  of  a  German  Socialist  leader.  It  is  not  far  afield  to 

138 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

many  other  Socialist  leaders  in  the  Reichstag,  he  neverthe- 
less played  a  prominent  part  in  his  party's  councils  and  was 
highly  regarded  and  respected.  He  enjoyed  also  a  wide 
popularity  among  members  of  the  fleet,  and  it  was  confident- 
ly expected  that  he  would  be  able  to  calm  the  unruly  trouble- 
makers and  restore  order. 

Haussmann  and  Noske  reached  Kiel  late  Monday  after- 
noon. The  parading  mutineers  met  them  at  the  station. 
Noske,  speaking  from  the  top  of  an  automobile,  addressed 
the  crowd,  appealing  to  their  patriotism  and  to  the  German 
instinct  for  orderly  procedure.  Their  main  demands,  he 
pointed  out,  had  already  been  granted.  The  government, 
representing  all  parties  of  the  empire,  promised  that  all 
grievances  should  be  heard  and  redressed.  The  speech  ap- 
peared to  have  some  effect.  Isolated  demonstrations  took 
place  until  into  the  evening,  but  there  were  no  serious 
clashes  anywhere. 

The  situation  seemed  somewhat  more  hopeful.  The  leaders 
on  both  sides  either  could  not  or  did  not  realize  what  power- 
ful and  pernicious  influences  were  working  against  them. 
The  Governor  felt  his  hand  strengthened  by  the  presence  of 
Haussmann,  the  Minister;  the  Workmen's  and  Soldiers' 
Council  was  both  calmed  and  encouraged  by  the  presence  of 
Noske,  the  party  leader.  The  members  of  the  council  and  the 
men  representing  the  Kiel  government  began  a  joint  session 
in  the  evening.  Four  delegates  of  the  Social-Democratic 
party  of  Kiel  also  attended  the  conference,  although  their 
party  had  already,  at  a  meeting  a  few  hours  earlier,  virtual- 
ly decided  to  order  a  general  sympathy  strike. 

The  deliberations  of  the  conference  showed  that  the  situ- 
ation had  suddenly  assumed  the  aspect  of  a  strike,  a  mere 
labor  and  party  question.  The  soldier  and  sailor  delegates 
left  the  debate  largely  to  the  party  leaders.  Both  sides,  gov- 
ernment and  strikers  alike,  showed  themselves  honestly  de- 
sirous   of    finding   a   peaceful   settlement.    The    difficulties 

estimate  that  seven  of  every  ten  of  the  Socialist  leaders  and  government 
officials  in  Germany  have  been  or  still  are  members  of  the  editorial  staffs  of 
Socialist  newspapers  or  magazines.  Most  of  the  others  are  lawyers;  prole- 
tarians who  earn  their  bread  by  the  actual  sweat  of  their  brows  are  rare  in 
the  party  leadership. 

139 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

proved,  however,  to  be  very  great.  At  I  :  oo  a.m.,  on  Tuesday, 
the  conference  took  a  recess.  Noske  telegraphed  to  Berlin : 
"Situation  serious.  Send  me  another  man."  But  despite  all 
difficulties  both  sides  were  hopeful. 

Of  the  many  thousands  of  mutineers,  however,  there  were 
many  who  were  not  disposed  to  await  an  orderly  adjustment 
of  the  situation.  Already  potential  masters  of  the  squadron, 
they  set  about  transmuting  potentiality  into  actuality.  On 
one  ship  after  another  the  red  flag  of  sedition,  the  emblem 
of  the  negation  of  loyalty  to  native  land,  replaced  the  proud 
imperial  standard.  It  is  an  amazing  thing  that  in  all  Ger- 
many not  a  dozen  of  the  thousands  of  officers  whose  fore- 
fathers had  for  two  centuries  enjoyed  the  privileges  of  an 
exclusive  and  loyal  caste  gave  their  lives  for  their  King  in 
an  eff^ort  to  oppose  revolt  and  revolution.  At  Kiel,  and  later 
at  Hamburg,  Swinemiinde,  Berlin — in  fact,  everywhere  — 
the  mutineers  and  revolutionaries  met  no  resistance  from  the 
very  men  of  whom  one  might  have  expected  that  they  would 
die,  even  in  a  forlorn  cause,  in  obedience  to  the  old  principle 
of  noblesse  oblige.  At  Kiel  there  were  but  three  of  this  heroic 
mold.  These  men,  whose  names  deserve  to  be  remembered 
and  honored  wherever  bravery  and  loyalty  are  prized,  were 
Commander  Weniger,  Captain  Heinemann  and  Lieutenant 
Zenker  of  the  battleship  Konig,  who  were  shot  down  as,  re- 
volver in  hand,  they  defended  the  imperial  standard  and 
killed  several  of  the  men  who  were  trying  to  replace  it  with 
the  red  rag  of  revolution.  Captain  Heine,  commandant  of 
the  city  of  Kiel,  was  shot  down  in  the  hallway  of  his  home 
Tuesday  evening  by  sailors  who  had  come  to  arrest  him. 
These  four  men  were  the  only  officers  deliberately  shot  in 
Kiel,  except  the  two  fatally  wounded  in  Sunday  night's 
fighting  at  the  military  prison. 

Admiral  Kraff't,  commander  of  the  Kiel  squadron,  finally 
decided  to  leave  port  with  his  ships.  But  it  was  too  late.  Some 
of  the  ships  had  to  be  left  behind,  for  the  mutineers,  coming 
alongside  in  small  fishing-steamers  and  other  craft,  had 
compelled  the  loyal  remnants  of  the  crews  to  refuse  to  obey 
the  order  to  accompany  the  squadron.  Even  on  the  ships  least 
aff"ected  by  the  mutiny,  hundreds  of  the  crews  refused  to 

140 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

come  aboard.  Word  of  the  revolt  had  moreover  reached 
other  coast  cities,  and  when  the  ships  reached  Liibeck,  Flens- 
burg,  Swinemiinde  and  other  ports,  it  proved  impossible  to 
keep  the  missionaries  of  mutiny  ashore  and  on  shipboard 
from  communicating  with  each  other.  Thus  the  contagion 
was  spread  further. 

Tuesday  was  a  day  of  tense  excitement  at  Kiel.  There  was 
some  shooting,  due — as  was  also  the  case  later  in  Berlin — 
to  false  reports  that  officers  had  fired  from  houses  on  the 
mutineers.  The  streets  were  filled  with  automobiles  carrying 
red  flags,  and  red  flags  began  to  appear  over  various  build- 
ings. Noske,  feverishly  active,  devoting  all  his  iron  energy 
to  restoring  order  and  finding  a  peaceful  solution  of  the  re- 
volt, conferred  continuously  with  representatives  of  the  city 
government,  with  military  and  naval  authorities  and  with 
the  strikers.  The  movement  still  had  outwardly  only  the 
aspect  of  a  strike,  serious  indeed,  but  still  a  strike.  He  suc- 
ceeded in  having  countermanded  an  order  bringing  troops 
to  the  city.  Despite  this,  the  suspicious  mutineers  compelled 
the  Governor  to  go  with  them  to  the  railway  station  in  order 
to  send  the  troops  back  if  it  should  prove  that  the  counter- 
order  had  not  reached  them  in  time.  At  the  request  of  the 
mutineers — who  treated  the  Governor  with  all  courtesy — 
he  remained  at  the  station  until  the  troop  train  arrived 
empty. 

The  situation  on  Tuesday  was  adversely  affected  by  the 
flight  of  Prince  Heinrich,  brother  of  the  Kaiser.  He  was  not 
unpopular  with  the  men  of  the  navy  and  he  was  never  even 
remotely  in  danger.  Yet  he  fled  from  Kiel  in  an  automobile 
and,  fleeing,  destroyed  the  remnant  of  authority  which  his 
government  still  enjoyed.  The  flight  itself  rendered  the 
strikers  nervous,  and  the  fact  that  the  death  of  a  marine,  who 
was  shot  while  standing  on  the  step  of  the  Prince's  automo- 
bile, was  at  first  ascribed  to  him,  enraged  the  mutineers  and 
was  a  further  big  factor  in  rendering  nugatory  the  eff'orts 
of  Noske  and  all  others  who  were  honestly  striving  to  find  a 
way  out  of  the  situation.  Autopsy  showed  that  the  marine 
had  been  shot  in  the  back  by  one  of  the  bullets  fired  after  the 
fleeing  automobile  by  the  victim's  own  comrades.  This  dis- 

141 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

closure,  however,  came  a  day  later,  and  then  it  was  too  late 
to  undo  the  mischief  caused  by  the  first  report. 

A  "non-resistance"  order,  the  first  one  of  many  that  helped 
make  the  revolution  possible,  was  also  issued  on  Tuesday  by 
the  military  authorities.  Officers  were  commanded  not  to 
use  force  against  the  strikers.  "Only  mutual  understanding 
of  the  demands  of  the  moment  can  restore  orderly  condi- 
tions," said  the  decree. 

Wednesday,  the  fourth  day  of  the  revolt  at  Kiel,  was  the 
critical  and,  as  it  proved,  the  decisive  day.  When  night  came 
the  mutineers  were  crowned  with  victory,  and  the  forces  of 
orderly  government  had  lost  the  day.  And  yet,  strangely 
enough,  neither  side  realized  this.  The  strikers  believed 
themselves  isolated  in  the  corner  of  an  undisturbed  empire. 
The  more  conservative  among  them  began  to  consider  their 
situation  in  a  different  light.  There  was  an  undercurrent  of 
feeling  that  no  help  could  be  looked  for  from  other  quarters 
and  that  a  reconciliation  with  the  authorities  should  be 
sought.  Noske  shared  this  feeling.  Speaking  to  the  striker's 
delegates  late  on  Wednesday  evening,  he  advised  them  to 
compromise.  Seek  an  agreement  with  the  government,  he 
said  in  effect.  The  government  is  ready  and  even  eager  to 
reach  a  fair  compromise.  We  stand  alone,  isolated. 

Neither  Noske  nor  the  bulk  of  the  mutineers  yet  knew 
what  had  been  going  on  elsewhere  in  northwestern  Ger- 
many. The  Independent  Socialist  and  Spartacan  plotters  for 
revolution  at  Berlin  saw  in  the  Kiel  events  the  opportunity 
for  which  they  had  been  waiting  for  more  than  three  years, 
and  they  struck  promptly.  Haase  and  some  of  his  followers 
went  immediately  to  Hamburg,  and  other  revolutionary 
agents  proceeded  to  the  other  coast  cities  to  incite  strikes  and 
revolts.  The  ground  had  been  so  well  prepared  that  their 
efforts  were  everywhere  speedily  successful.  In  the  few  cities 
where  the  people  were  not  already  ripe  for  revolution,  the 
supineness  of  the  authorities  made  the  revolutionaries'  task  a 
light  one.  Leaders  of  the  Kiel  mutineers  met  the  Berlin  agi- 
tators in  different  cities  and  cooperated  with  them. 

The  procedure  was  everywhere  the  same.  Workmen's  and 
soldiers'  councils  were  formed,  policemen  and  loyal  troops 

142 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

were  disarmed  and  the  city  government  was  taken  over  by 
the  Soviets.  By  Thursday  evening  soviet  governments  had 
been  established  in  Hamburg,  Cuxhaven,  Wilhelmshaven, 
Bremen,  Hanover,  Rostock,  Oldenburg  and  other  places. 
The  Soviets  in  virtually  all  these  places  were  controlled  by 
Independent  Socialists — even  then  only  a  slight  remove 
from  Bolsheviki — and  their  spirit  was  hostile  not  alone  to 
the  existing  government,  but  equally  to  the  Majority  So- 
cialists. At  Hamburg,  for  instance,  the  Workmen's  and  Sol- 
diers' Council,  which  had  forcibly  taken  over  the  Majority 
Socialist  organ  Hamburger  Echo  and  rechristened  it  Die 
rote  Fahfie,  published  a  proclamation  forbidding  the  press 
to  take  any  notice  whatever  of  proclamations  issued  by  the 
Majority  Socialists  or  the  leaders  of  trade-unions.  The  proc- 
lamation declared  that  "these  elements  will  be  permitted 
to  cooperate  in  the  government,  but  they  will  not  be  per- 
mitted to  present  any  demands."  Any  attempt  to  interfere 
with  the  soviet  was  declared  to  be  counter-revolutionary,  and 
it  was  threatened  that  such  attempts  would  "be  met  with  the 
severest  repressive  measures." 

The  revolution  at  Hamburg  was  marked  by  much  shooting 
and  general  looting.  A  semblance  of  order  was  restored  on 
November  8th,  but  it  was  order  only  by  comparison  with  the 
preceding  day,  and  life  and  property  were  for  many  days 
unsafe  in  the  presence  of  the  vicious  elements  in  control  of 
the  city.  Prisoners  were  promiscuously  released.  Russian 
prisoners  of  war,  proudly  bearing  red  ribbons  and  flags, 
marched  with  their  "brothers"  in  the  demonstrations.  A  de- 
tachment of  marines  went  to  Harburg,  near  by,  and  lib- 
erated all  the  prisoners  confined  in  the  jail  there. 

The  cowardice,  supineness  and  lack  of  decision  of  the  au- 
thorities generally  have  already  been  referred  to.  A  strik- 
ing and  characteristic  illustration  is  furnished  by  the  story 
of  the  revolution  at  Swinemiinde,  on  the  Baltic  Sea.  Two 
warships,  the  Dresden  and  Augsburg,  were  in  the  harbor 
when  news  came  of  the  Kiel  mutiny.  The  admiral  was  Count 
Schwerin  and  one  of  his  officers  was  Prince  Adalbert,  the 
sailor-son  of  the  Kaiser.  The  crews  of  the  ships  were  loyal, 
and  the  Prince  was  especially  popular  with  them.  The  gar- 

143 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

rison  at  Swinemiinde  was  composed  of  fifteen  hundred  coast 
artillerists  and  some  three  hundred  marines.  The  artillerists 
were  all  men  of  the  better  class,  technically  educated  and 
thoroughly  loyal.  At  a  word  from  their  commanding-officer 
they  would  have  blown  any  mutinous  ship  out  of  the  water 
with  their  heavy  coast  guns.  And  yet  Admiral  Count  Schwer- 
in  and  Prince  Adalbert  donned  civilian  clothing  and  took 
refuge  with  civilian  friends  ashore. 

Thirty-six  submarines  arrived  at  five  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon, but  left  two  hours  later  because  there  was  no  food  to 
be  had  at  Swinemiinde.  The  coast  artillerists  begged  to  be 
allowed  to  wipe  out  the  mutineers.  The  mayor  of  Swine- 
miinde protested.  Shells  from  the  sea,  he  said,  might  fall 
into  the  city  and  damage  it.  And  so,  under  the  guns  of  loyal 
men,  the  sailors  looted  the  ships  completely  during  the  even- 
ing and  night. 

A  committee  of  three  marines  called  on  Major  Grunewald, 
commander  of  the  fortress,  and  insolently  ordered  him  to 
direct  the  garrison  to  appoint  a  soldiers'  council.  The  artiller- 
ists were  dumfounded  when  the  major  complied.  The  council 
appointed  consisted  of  three  marines,  one  artillerist  and  one 
infantryman,  of  whom  there  were  about  a  hundred  in  the 
garrison.  One  of  the  members  was  an  officer.  Major  Grune- 
wald having  been  ordered  to  direct  the  appointment  of  one. 
When  the  council  had  been  formed  the  troops  were  drawn 
up  to  listen  to  a  speech  by  a  sergeant  of  marines.  The  major, 
his  head  bared,  listened  obediently. 

"We  are  the  masters  here  now,"  said  the  sergeant.  "  It  is 
ours  to  command,  yours  to  obey.  The  salute  is  abolished. 
When  we  meet  a  decent  officer  we  may  possibly  say  'good 
day,  major,'  to  him,  but  when  we  meet  some  little  runt 
(Schnosel)  of  a  lieutenant  we  shan't  recognize  him.  The 
officers  may  now  go  to  their  quarters.  We  don't  need  them. 
If  we  should  need  them  later  we  shall  tell  them."^ 

The  government  at  Berlin  and  the  Majority   Socialists 

*The  flight  of  Prince  Heinrich  and  later  of  the  Kaiser  made  a  painful 
impression  in  Germany,  especially  among  Germans  of  the  better  class,  and 
did  much  to  alienate  sympathy  from  them.  It  had  been  thought  that,  what- 
ever other  faults  the  Hohenzollerns  ^ight  possess,  they  were  at  least  not 
cowards.  The  flight  of  Prince  Adalbert  is  even  today  not  generally  known. 

144 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

endeavored,  even  after  the  events  already  recorded,  to  stem 
the  tide,  or  at  least  to  lead  the  movement  into  more  orderly 
channels.  Stolten  and  Quarck,  Socialist  Reichstag  deputies, 
and  Blunck,  Progressive  deputy,  and  Stubbe  and  Schumann, 
Socialists,  representing  the  executive  committee  of  the  cen- 
tral labor  federation,  went  to  Hamburg.  But  Haase,  Lede- 
bour  and  the  otheK  agitators  had  done  their  work  too  well. 
Thursday  morning  brought  the  reports  of  the  successes  of 
the  uprisings  to  the  mutineers  at  Kiel,  who  were  on  the  point 
of  returning  to  their  ships.  A  Workmen's  and  Soldiers' 
Council  was  formed  for  the  whole  province  of  Schleswig- 
Holstein.  The  revolt  had  already  become  revolution.  The 
revolutionaries  seized  the  railway  running  from  Hamburg 
to  Berlin,  and  also  took  charge  of  telephonic  and  telegraphic 
communication.  Their  emissaries  started  for  Berlin. 

It  has  been  set  forth  in  a  previous  chapter  that  the  prom- 
ise of  President  Wilson  to  give  the  Germans  a  just  peace  on 
the  basis  of  his  fourteen  points  and  the  supplementary  points, 
and  his  declaration  that  the  war  was  against  a  system  and 
not  against  the  German  people  themselves  had  played  a 
very  considerable  part  in  making  the  revolution  possible. 
This  appears  clearly  in  the  report  of  the  events  at  Bremen. 
On  November  7th  a  procession,  estimated  at  thirty  thou- 
sand persons,  passed  through  the  city  and  halted  at  the 
market  place.  A  number  of  speeches  were  made.  One  of  the 
chief  speakers,  a  soldier,  reminded  his  hearers  that  Wilson 
had  said  that  a  peace  of  justice  was  possible  for  the  Ger- 
mans only  if  they  would  take  the  government  into  their  own 
hands.  This  had  now  been  done,  and  nobody  could  reproach 
the  revolutionaries  with  being  unpatriotic,  since  their  acts 
had  made  a  just  peace  possible. 

A  similar  address  was  made  at  a  meeting  of  the  revolu- 
tionaries in  Hanover,  where  the  speaker  told  his  hearers  that 
the  salvation  of  Germany  depended  upon  their  loyal  sup- 
port of  the  revolution,  which  had  placed  all  power  in  the 
hands  of  the  people  and  fulfilled  the  conditions  precedent 
entitling  them  to  such  a  peace  as  the  President  had  promised 
them. 

At  the  request  of  the  government  Noske  assumed  the  post 

145 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

of  Governor  of  Kiel.  Order  was  restored.  The  relations  be- 
tween the  mutineers  and  their  former  officers  were  strikingly- 
good.  The  spirit  of  the  Majority  Socialists  prevailed.  Not 
until  the  Berlin  revolution  had  put  the  seal  upon  their  work 
did  the  mutineers  of  Kiel  realize  that  it  was  they  who  had 
started  the  revolution. 


146 


CHAPTER  X. 
The  Revolution  Reaches  BerHn. 

THE  first  news  of  the  Kiel  revolt  reached  Berlin  on/ 
November  5th,  when  the  morning  papers  published 
a  half-column  article  giving  a  fairly  accurate  story 
of  the  happenings  of  Sunday,   November  3d.   The   report 
ended : 

"By  eight  o'clock  the  street"  ( Karlstrasse,  where  the  firing 
occurred)  "was  clear.  Only  a  few  pools  of  blood  and  numer- 
ous shattered  windows  in  the  nearby  buildings  gave  evidence 
that  there  had  been  sad  happenings  here.  The  late  evening 
and  the  night  were  quiet.  Excited  groups  stood  about  the 
street  corners'  until  midnight,  but  they  remained  passive. 
Reinforced  patrols  passed  through  the  city,  which  other- 
wise appeared  as  usual.  All  public  places  are  open  and  the 
performances  in  the  theaters  were  not  interrupted." 

The  papers  of  the  following  day  announced  that  "official 
reports  concerning  the  further  course  of  events  in  Kiel  and 
other  cities  in  North  Germany  had  not  been  made  public 
here  up  to  noon.  We  are  thus  for  the  moment  unable  to  give 
a  report  concerning  them." 

This  was  but  half  the  truth.  The  capital  was  already  filled 
with  reports,  and  the  government  was  by  this  time  fully  in- 
formed of  what  was  going  on.  Rumors  and  travelers'  tales 
passed  from  mouth  to  mouth,  but  even  yet  the  movement 
was  not  considered  directly  revolutionary,  nor,  indeed,  was 
it  revolutionary,  although  it  became  so  within  the  next 
twenty-four  hours.  The  executive  committee  of  the  German 
Federation  of  Labor  published  a  declaration  regarding  "the 
recent  spreading  of  anonymous  handbills  summoning  la- 
borers to  strikes  and  disorders  for  political  ends."  It  was 
also  reported  by  the  press  that  Kurt  Eisner,  who  had  been 

147 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

released  from  prison  by  the  October  amnesty,  had  made  a 
violent  revolutionary  speech  at  a  meeting  of  the  Independent 
Socialists  in  Munich.  A  further  significant  newspaper  item 
complained  of  the  distribution  in  Germany  of  vast  quanti- 
ties of  revolutionary  literature  printed  in  Sweden  and  Den- 
mark and  smuggled  across  the  Danish  border. 

JofTe,  convicted  of  abusing  his  privileges  as  a  diplomat 
and  of  lying,  had  been  escorted  to  a  special  train,  together 
with  his  staff,  and  headed  for  Russia.  With  him  went  the 
Berlin  representatives  of  the  Rosta  Telegraph  Agency.  But 
it  was  too  late.  Not  only  had  the  mischief  already  been  done, 
but  the  loyalist  Germans  had  also  been  disgusted  with  the 
government's  timorous  failure  to  grasp  this  nettle  earlier 
and  the  Independent  Socialists  and  their  Spartacan  soul- 
brothers  were  still  further  enraged,  if  possible,  by  the  ex- 
pulsion and  the  manner  in  which  it  was  carried  out. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  the  government  even  yet  realized 
that  it  had  an  embryo  revolution  to  deal  with.  A  more  homo- 
geneous government,  composed  of  men  with  executive  as 
well  as  legislative  experience,  would  have  realized  it,  but 
homogeneity  and  executive  experience  were  sadly  lacking 
in  this  cabinet.  It  is  significant  that  the  experienced  men  at 
the  head  of  the  political  police  had  already  begun  prepara- 
tions to  crush  any  uprising  and  had  burned  certain  archives 
which  they  did  not  desire  to  have  fall  into  the  hands  of  revo- 
lutionary elements.  The  government  was  also  embarrassed 
by  the  uncertain  attitude  of  the  Majority  Socialists.  Osten- 
sibly these  did  not  desire  the  overthrow  of  the  monarchy, 
but  merely  of  the  Kaiser;  Scheidemann  had  declared  in  so 
many  words  that  his  party,  despite  the  fact  that  it  had  al- 
ways striven  for  an  eventual  republic,  was  willing  to  wait 
for  such  a  development  and  was  for  the  present  not  opposed 
to  the  maintaining  of  a  constitutional  monarchy.  As  late  as 
November  8th  Scheidemann  told  von  Payer  that  the  So- 
cialists did  not  insist  on  the  abolition  of  the  monarchy. 

There  were  even  Socialists  who  did  not  desire  the  Kaiser's 
abdication.  Herr  Marum,  a  Socialist  member  of  the  Baden 
Diet,  in  a  speech  at  the  end  of  October,  had  warned  his 
hearers  that  any  attempt  to  depose  the  Kaiser  would  bring 

148 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

chaos  and  imperil  the  state.  He  declared  that  the  overwhelm- 
ing majority  of  Germans  were  still  monarchists,  and  al- 
though the  Socialists  were  advocates  of  a  republic,  that 
question  was  now  subordinate.  The  Kaiser,  said  Marum, 
had,  in  common  with  all  Germans,  learned  much,  and  it 
would  be  a  great  risk  to  try  to  force  a  republic  upon  an  un- 
willing majority.  Dr.  Dietz,  a  Socialist  city  councillor,  sec- 
onded Marum,  and  expressed  indignation  at  any  efforts  to 
make  a  scapegoat  of  the  Kaiser. 

The  Wednesday  evening  papers  published  a  note  from 
Lansing,  wherein  it  was  stated  that  the  allied  nations  ac- 
cepted Wilson's  fourteen  points  of  January  8,  191 8,  and  the 
supplementary  points  enunciated  in  the  Mount  Vernon 
speech,  except  that  relating  to  the  freedom  of  the  seas.  The 
German  delegation  "for  the  conclusion  of  an  armistice  and 
to  begin  peace  negotiations"  left  Berlin  for  the  west.  It 
was  composed  of  General  von  Giindell,  General  von  Winter- 
feldt,  Admiral  Meurer  and  Admiral  von  Hintze. 

Thursday,  November  7th,  brought  more  reassuring  news 
from  Kiel.  The  official  Wolff  Bureau  reported  : 

"The  military  protection  of  the  Baltic  by  the  marine  is 
completely  reestablished.  All  departing  warships  carry  the 
war-flag.  The  movement  among  the  sailors  and  workmen  has 
taken  a  quieter  course.  The  soldiers  of  the  garrison  are  en- 
deavoring to  take  measures  against  violations  of  order.  A 
gradual  general  surrender  of  weapons  is  proceeding.  Private 
houses  and  business  places,  as  well  as  lazarets  and  hospitals, 
are  unmolested.  Nearly  all  banks  are  doing  business.  The 
provisioning  in  the  barracks  and  on  the  ships  is  being  carried 
out  in  the  usual  manner.  The  furnishing  of  provisions  to 
the  civilian  population  has  not  been  interfered  with.  The 
strike  at  the  factories  continues.  The  people  are  quiet." 

Reports  from  other  coast  cities  were  less  favorable.  Wolff 
reported : 

"In  Hamburg  there  is  a  strike  in  the  factories.  Breaches 
of  discipline  and  violent  excesses  have  occurred.  The  same 
is  reported  from  Liibeck.  Except  for  excesses  in  certain 
works,  private  property  has  not  been  damaged  nor  touched. 
The  population  is  in  no  danger." 

149 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

Chancellor  Prince  Max  issued  a  proclamation,  declaring 
that  Germany's  enemies  had  accepted  Wilson's  program, 
except  as  to  the  freedom  of  the  seas.  "This,"  he  said,  "  forms 
the  necessary  preliminary  condition  for  peace  negotiations 
and  at  the  same  time  for  armistice  negotiations."  He  de- 
clared that  a  delegation  had  already  been  sent  to  the  west 
front,  but  "the  successful  conduct  of  negotiations  is  grave- 
ly jeopardized  by  disturbances  and  undisciplined  conduct." 
The  Chancellor  recalled  the  privations  endured  by  the  people 
for  more  than  four  years  and  appealed  to  them  to  hold  out  a 
little  longer  and  maintain  order. 

The  situation  was,  however,  already  lost.  If  Scheidemann, 
Ebert  and  their  fellow  members  in  the  central  committee  of 
the  Majority  Socialist  organization  had  had  their  followers 
in  hand  the  revolution  could  probably  still  have  been  pre- 
vented, or  at  least  transformed  into  an  orderly  dethroning 
of  the  Kaiser  and  institution  of  parliamentary  reforms.  But 
they  did  not  have  them  in  hand,  and  the  result  was  that 
Vorzvdrts,  the  party's  central  organ,  published  in  its  morn- 
ing issue  a  further  demand  for  the  Kaiser's  abdication.  Vor- 
wdrts  declared  that  his  sufferings  could  not  be  compared  to 
those  of  most  German  fathers  and  that  the  sacrifice  he  was 
called  upon  to  make  was  comparatively  small.  The  appear- 
ance of  this  article  was  followed  a  few  hours  later  by  an  ul- 
timatum to  the  government,  demanding  that  the  Kaiser  ab- 
dicate within  twenty-four  hours  and  declaring  that  if  he 
failed  to  do  so,  the  Socialists  would  withdraw  from  the  gov- 
ernment. It  is  probable  that  Scheidemann,  Ebert  and  some 
of  the  other  leaders  of  the  party  presented  the  ultimatum 
with  reluctance,  realizing  what  it  would  involve,  but  they 
were  helpless  in  the  face  of  the  sentiment  of  the  mass  of 
their  party  and  of  the  attitude  of  the  Independent  Socialists. 

The  attitude  of  the  Kaiser  toward  abdication  was  already 
known  to  them.  Following  Scheidemann's  demand  a  week 
earlier,  Dr.  Drews,  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  had  sub- 
mitted the  demand  to  the  Kaiser.  Scheidemann  had  declared 
that,  if  the  Kaiser  did  not  abdicate,  the  Independent  Social- 
ists would  demand  the  introduction  of  a  republic,  in  which 
case  the  Majority  Socialists  would  be  compelled  to  make 

150 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

common  cause  with  them.  The  Kaiser,  doubtless  still  con- 
vinced of  the  loyalty  of  the  troops,  was  not  moved  by  Drews's 
report.  He  declared  that  his  abdication  would  mean  com- 
plete anarchy  and  the  delivering  of  Germany  into  the  hands 
of  the  Bolsheviki.  He  could  not  accept  the  responsibility 
for  such  a  step.  That  Scheidemann  and  Ebert,  although  they 
were  cognizant  of  the  Kaiser's  attitude,  consented  to  Thurs- 
day's ultimatum  gives  color  to  a  report  that  informal  ne- 
gotiations had  in  the  meantime  been  carried  on  between 
them  and  certain  Independent  leaders.^ 

Revolution  was  now  fairly  on  the  march.  The  Independ- 
ent Socialists  and  Liebknecht's  Spartacans  were  already  en- 
deavoring to  form  a  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Council  for 
Greater  Berlin.  General  von  Linsingen,  commander  in  the 
Marches,  made  a  last  desperate  attempt  to  forbid  the  revo- 
lution by  issuing  the  following  decree : 

"  In  certain  quarters  there  exists  the  purpose  to  form 
Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Councils  after  the  Russian  pat- 
tern, in  disregard  of  the  provisions  of  the  laws. 

"Institutions  of  this  kind  conflict  with  the  existing  state 
order  and  endanger  the  public  safety. 

"  Under  paragraph  9b  of  the  law  regarding  a  state  of 
siege  I  forbid  any  formation  of  such  associations  and  the 
participation  therein." 

This  was  the  last  order  issued  by  the  military  authorities 
in  Berlin.  A  counterpiece  was  the  last  anti-revolutionary 
order  issued  by  the  old  police  authorities,  which  forbade 
eight  mass  meetings  which  the  Independent  Socialists  pro- 
posed to  hold  Thursday  evening,  with  "The  Anniversary 
of  the  Russian  Revolution"  as  their  theme.  The  police  or- 
der, however,  was  enforced. 

The  first  revolutionary  emissaries  reached  Berlin  Thurs- 
day evening,  in  the  form  of  various  detachments  of  armed 
marines  from  Hamburg.  The  military  authorities,  more 
resolute  than  those  in  the  provincial  cities,  sent  troops  to  the 
railway  station  to  receive  them.  The  marines  suffered  them- 

^These  negotiations  had  nothing  to  do  with  a  revolution  as  such,  nor  with 
the  formation  of  Soviets.  It  must  be  emphasized  that  the  Majority  Socialists 
still  had  no  part  in  these  plans  and  were  themselves  surprised  by  the  events 
of  Friday  evening  and  Saturday. 

151 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

selves  to  be  disarmed  and  went  without  resistance  to  bar- 
racks, with  the  exception  of  one  detachment  of  about  two 
hundred  and  fifty  men,  of  whom  all  but  some  seventy  es- 
caped into  the  streets  with  their  weapons.  These  men  formed 
the  nucleus  of  the  revolution  in  Berlin. 

Berlin  was  still  without  any  but  the  most  meager  news 
of  the  revolution  Friday.  The  papers  complained  of  an  even 
more  narrow-minded  and  arbitrary  censorship  by  the  new 
government  than  that  under  the  old  regime.  The  press  was 
on  the  whole  restricted  to  printing  official  reports,  although 
some  of  them  added  a  few  paragraphs  of  explanatory  com- 
ment. An  inspired  report  that  the  excesses  in  the  northwest 
bore  no  political  character  was  contradicted  by  the  Vorwdrts, 
which  declared  that  they  had  a  "liberty  seeking  socialistic 
character  everywhere."  Unimportant  disturbances  took  place 
during  the  day  in  Rosenthalerstrasse,  in  the  old  city,  and  a 
few  arrests  were  made,  but  the  day  passed  quietly  on  the 
whole. 

Crowds  stood  in  front  of  the  bulletin  boards  of  the  various 
newspapers  all  day,  waiting  for  news  from  Grand  Head- 
quarters. Would  the  Kaiser  abdicate?  The  term  of  the  So- 
cialist ultimatum  expired.  Scheidemann  gave  notice  that  the 
party  would  wait  another  twenty-four  hours,  and  a  few 
hours  later  the  term  was  extended  until  after  the  decision 
regarding  the  armistice,  the  terms  of  which  were  expected 
to  reach  Berlin  on  Saturday. 

The  government,  weak,  irresolute,  inexperienced,  faced 
a  situation  which  would  have  confounded  stronger  men.  A 
day  earlier  they  had  consented  to  summon  from  Kiel  and 
Hamburg  about  a  thousand  marines  who  were  supposed  to 
be  devoted  to  Noske.  This  attempt  to  cast  out  the  Devil  with 
Beelzebub  indicates  in  some  degree  the  desperateness  of 
the  situation.  More  troops  were  brought  to  the  capital  on 
Friday.  They  were  the  Naumburg  Jdger  (sharpshooters) 
and  the  Liibben  Jdger,  excellent  troops,  who  had  been  in  the 
Finland  contingent,  had  distinguished  themselves  by  patri- 
otic daring  and  exemplary  discipline,  and  who  were  con- 
sidered absolutely  reliable.  These  men,  about  four  thousand 
in  all,  were  in  part  quartered  in  different  large  restaurants 

152 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

and  in  part  in  the  barracks  of  the  Alexander  Regiment.  It 
was  in  these  barracks  that  (ironic  coincidence  !)  Kaiser  Wil- 
helm  made  his  well-known  speech  on  March  28,  1901,  in 
which  he  asserted  his  confidence  that,  if  the  Berliners  should 
again  become  "insolent  and  disobedient"  {frech  und  unbot- 
indssig)  as  in  1848,  his  troops  would  know  how  to  protect 
their  imperial  master.  In  all  there  were  perhaps  twenty 
thousand  soldiers  in  Berlin  at  this  time,  including  several 
regiments  of  the  Prussian  Guard. 

Throughout  Thursday  and  Friday  the  Independent  So- 
cialists were  feverishly  active.  Liebknecht,  "Red  Rosa"  Lux- 
emburg and  other  Spartacans  joined  the  Independent  agi- 
tators in  revolutionary  propaganda  among  the  soldiers  and 
in  making  preparations  for  the  final  coup.  The  police,  loyal 
and  alert  to  the  last,  arrested  Daumig  on  a  charge  of  high 
treason  and  closed  the  central  bureau  of  the  Independent 
Socialist  party.  Again  too  late!  There  were  plenty  left  to 
carry  on  the  work.  The  Majority  Socialists,  or  at  least  their 
leaders,  knew  in  a  general  way  of  the  activities  of  these  rev- 
olutionary forces,  but  they  were  still  ignorant  of  the  details. 

Prince  Max  telegraphed  the  Kaiser,  offering  to  resign. 
The  Kaiser  asked  him  to  remain  in  office  for  the  time  being 
at  least. 

Friday  night  the  Berlin  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Council 
was  organized  at  a  meeting  summoned  by  Barth,  Haase 
and  other  Independents.  In  addition  to  the  Independents 
and  Spartacans  at  the  meeting,  there  were  a  number  of  more 
or  less  well-known  men  who  had  not  theretofore  been  identi- 
fied with  these  parties.  One  of  them,  a  man  who  was  to  play 
a  prominent  role  in  the  events  of  Saturday,  the  day  of  the 
real  revolution,  was  Lieutenant  Colin  Ross,  a  prominent 
journalist  and  war  correspondent.  Another  was  Captain  von 
Beerfelde.  It  was  von  Beerfelde  who,  at  that  time  a  member 
of  the  General  Staff,  betrayed  a  friend's  confidence  by  mak- 
ing public  the  Lichnowsky  memorandum.  This  resulted, 
quite  naturally,  in  his  arrest  and  imprisonment.  The  govern- 
ment could  not  have  acted  otherwise,  but  there  is  no  doubt 
that  von  Beerfelde  was  subjected  to  unnecessary  indignities 
during  his  arrest,  and  these,  in  connection  with  the  arrest 

153 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

itself,  transformed  the  somewhat  unbalanced  and  egotistic 
man  into  a  bitter  enemy  of  all  existing  institutions.  The  Gen- 
eral Staff  was  further  represented  at  Friday  night's  meet- 
ing by  First  Lieutenant  Tibertius,  a  man  of  no  particular 
prominence  or  importance,  who  came  to  the  meeting  in 
company  with  the  Independent  leaders.  Barth  had  bought 
some  sixteen  hundred  revolvers  with  money  given  him  by 
Joffe,  and  these  were  distributed  at  the  meeting  and  out- 
side, to  soldiers  and  civilians  alike.  Barth  presided  at  the 
meeting,  which  was  held  in  the  Reichstag  chamber. 

The  Majority  Socialists  now  saw  the  hoplessness  of  keep- 
ing apart  from  the  movement.  They  declared  their  solidari- 
ty with  the  Independents,  and,  in  the  few  hours  that  re- 
mained, set  about  trying  to  save  whatever  could  be  saved 
out  of  the  wreck  which  was  plainly  coming. 

Friday  night,  despite  these  occurrences,  passed  quietly. 
The  streets  were  unusually  crowded  until  after  midnight, 
but  it  was  mainly  a  curious  crowd,  awaiting  further  news, 
particularly  of  the  Kaiser's  expected  abdication.  The  royal 
palace  was  strongly  cordoned  by  steel-helmeted  troops,  a 
searchlight  played  from  the  tower  of  the  city  hall  and  the 
streets  of  the  old  city  were  well  patrolled  by  troops  and 
policemen.  The  police  chiefs  of  various  municipalities  of 
Greater  Berlin  conferred  with  General  von  Linsingen  on 
ways  and  means  of  meeting  eventual  disturbances.  They 
decided  that  further  military  forces  were  not  needed. 

Saturday,  revolution  day,  dawned  with  the  great  mass 
of  the  inhabitants  still  ignorant  of  the  events  of  the  pre- 
ceding days.  The  coming  events  nevertheless  cast  their 
shadows  before.  The  morning  papers  reported  that  the 
Kaiser's  son-in-law,  Duke  Ernest  August  of  Brunswick, 
had  abdicated  after  an  eleventh-hour  attempt  to  stem  the  tide 
by  a  decree  for  franchise  reform.  It  was  also  evident  that 
the  Kaiser  must  go,  for  the  Clericals,  National  Liberals  and 
Progressives  in  the  government  permitted  it  to  be  reported 
that,  while  they  were  still  supporters  of  a  monarchical  form 
of  government,  they  had,  in  view  of  the  extraordinary  cir- 
cumstances, decided  that  personal  considerations  must  be 
disregarded. 

154 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

The  Wolff  Bureau  was  forced  to  admit  that  the  revolt 
that  started  at  Kiel  had  extended  to  many  other  places  in 
the  Empire.  The  report  said : 

"A  certain  carefully  planned  procedure  is  now  disclosing 
itself.  Everywhere  the  same  picture :  from  the  chief  centers, 
Kiel  and  Hamburg,  trains  carrying  armed  marines  and 
agitators  are  being  sent  out  into  the  country.  These  men  en- 
deavor to  seize  the  centers  of  communication  and  abolish 
the  military  commands.  They  then  attach  to  themselves 
criminal  elements,  among  whom  there  are  great  numbers  of 
deserters,  and  endeavor  to  corrupt  the  troops  by  represent- 
ing to  them  that  it  is  not  a  question  of  a  revolutionary  move- 
ment, but  one  to  secure  military  reforms.  The  attempt  has 
been  successful  with  many  troops,  but  it  has  met  energetic 
resistance  from  others.  The  whole  movement  plainly  pro- 
ceeds from  Russia,  and  it  is  proved  that  the  former  mem- 
bers of  the  Berlin  representation  of  the  Soviet  republic  have 
cooperated  in  it.  As  the  Russian  Government  has  itself  ad- 
mitted, it  hopes  by  this  means  to  cause  Bolshevist  ideas  to 
spring  into  new  life  here  in  Germany  and  thereafter  in  all 
Europe." 

This  was  the  first  open  admission  that  the  Kiel  revolt  had 
developed  into  a  revolution.  The  newspapers  were  permitted 
also  to  publish  reports  from  various  water-front  cities,  show- 
ing that  the  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Councils  were  in  pow- 
er in  Bremen,  Hamburg,  Liibeck,  Kiel  and  other  places,  and 
that  these  councils  ''are  in  charge  of  the  government  in 
nearly  all  garrisons  in  the  province  of  Holstein."  They  were 
also  permitted  to  report  the  proclamation  of  the  republic  in 
Bavaria,  and  the  complete  text  of  Kurt  Eisner's  bombastic 
address  to  the  people.  It  was  reported  from  Frankfort-on- 
Main  that  General  von  Studnitz,  commander  in  that  city, 
had  ordered  all  garrisons  there  to  hold  meetings  on  Friday 
evening  for  the  formation  of  soldiers'  councils.  This  action 
followed  representations  from  Frankfort's  Majority  Social- 
ists, acting  in  concert  with  the  Progressives. 

Nowhere,  however,  was  any  mention  made  of  Friday 
night's  events  in  Berlin  itself.  The  papers  published  articles 
couched  in  general  terms,  warning  all  citizens  to  preserve 

155 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

/Order,  and  reminding  them  that  the  city's  provisioning  would 
be  gravely  disturbed  by  disorders.  In  fact,  the  daily  supply 
of  milk  had  already  dropped  ninety  thousand  liters  as  a  re- 
sult of  the  "sudden  interruption  of  railway  traffic." 

The  Majority  Socialists  had  summoned  a  meeting  for  the 
early  morning  of  Saturday  in  the  Reichstag  building.  They 
had  been  in  session  only  a  short  time  when  the  news  came 
that  a  large  parade  of  workingmen  was  proceeding  down 
the  Chausseestrasse.  This  was  about  9:00  A.M.  The  parade 
was  largely  made  up  of  employees  from  the  Schwartzkopff 
works,  which  had  been  for  two  years  a  hotbed  of  discontent, 
of  radical  socialism  and  Bolshevism.  The  marchers  entered 
the  barracks  of  the  iFusilier  Guards — known  in  Berlin  and 
North  Germany  generally  as  the  Maikdfcr — and  demanded 
that  the  soldiers  surrender  their  weapons.  A  captain,  the 
first  officer  encountered,  shot  down  four  of  the  rioters  before 
he  was  himself  killed.  He  was  the  only  officer  in  Berlin  rash, 
brave  and  loyal  enough  to  give  his  life  deliberately  for  his 
monarch  and  for  the  old  system.  The  soldiers  then  meekly 
surrendered  their  rifles  and  the  parade  moved  on,  reinforced 
in  every  street  with  deserters,  criminals,  hooligans  and  other 
undesirable  elements  such  as  are  to  be  found  in  all  large 
cities. 

The  Majority  Socialists  realized  that  their  only  hope  was 
to  try  to  lead  the  movement  and  direct  it  into  comparatively 
orderly  channels.  They  appointed  Scheidemann,  Ebert  and 
David  to  confer  with  the  Independent  Socialist  delegates 
Dittmann,  Vogtherr  and  Ledebour,  regarding  the  organi- 
zation of  a  new  government. 

Further  reports  came  of  street  demonstrations.  Blood- 
shed appeared  imminent.  Colin  Ross  went  to  the  palace  of 
the  Chancellor  and  found  Prince  Max.  The  Prince  was  ner- 
vous and  all  but  entirely  unstrung.  Ross  told  him  the  Ma- 
jority Socialists  had  decided  that  there  must  be  no  firing  on 
the  people,  and  asked  him  to  issue  an  order  to  that  effect. 
Max  said  he  would  do  so.  Ross  thereupon  went  to  Minister 
of  War  Scheuch  and  told  him  that  the  Chancellor  had  or- 
dered that  the  troops  should  not  fire  on  the  citizens.  The 


156 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

order  was  communicated  to  the  various  garrisons  and  also 
to  police  headquarters. 

What  would  have  occurred  if  this  order  had  not  been  is- 
sued is  a  matter  of  conjecture.  Assuredly  there  would  have 
been  bloodshed.  Qtiite  apart  from  the  question  of  the  relia- 
bility or  unreliability  of  the  troops  there  were  the  Berlin 
police  to  deal  with.  Their  ranks  had  been  thinned  by  calls 
to  the  front,  but  those  still  on  duty  were  no  inconsiderable 
factor.  The  force  was  made  up  entirely  of  veteran  non-com- 
missioned officers,  who  must  have  served  twelve  years  in  the 
army.  They  were,  moreover,  like  all  great  city  police  forces, 
picked  men,  above  the  average  physically,  and  far  above 
the  average  in  bravery,  resoluteness  and  loyalty.  Only  a 
negligible  number  of  them  had  been  perverted  by  red  doc- 
trines, and  they  were  well  armed  and  fully  prepared  for  the 
day's  events.  High  police  officials  assured  the  author  that 
they  could  have  put  down  the  revolution  in  its  very  begin- 
nings if  the  order  had  not  come  forbidding  them  to  offer 
resistance. 

Viewed  in  the  light  of  subsequent  events,  this  statement 
must  be  rejected.  The  police  could  and  would  have  put  up  a 
brave  battle,  but  there  were  too  few  of  them  for  one  thing, 
and  for  another,  the  revolution  had  too  great  momentum 
to  be  stopped  by  any  force  available  to  the  authorities.  One 
military  defection  had  already  occurred  when  Saturday 
dawned.  A  corporal  of  the  Naumburg  Jdger,  who  were 
quartered  in  the  Alexander  barracks,  had  been  arrested  for 
making  an  incendiary  speech  to  some  comrades,  and  when 
the  troops  were  alarmed  at  3  :  oo  A.M.  and  ordered  to  be  ready 
to  go  into  action  they  refused  to  obey.  Major  Ott,  command- 
er of  the  battalion  directly  affected,  came  and  told  the  men 
that  the  Kaiser  had  already  abdicated.  They  sent  a  delega- 
tion to  the  Vorwdrts,  where  they  learned  that  the  major's 
statement  was  not  true.  The  delegation  thereupon  announced 
that  the  battalion  would  place  itself  on  the  side  of  the  work- 
ingmen.  The  Kaiser  Alexander  Guards  followed  the  Jdger's 
example. 

There  were  some  good  trbppis  in  Berlin — such  as  the 
Jdger  already  mentioned — but  the  great  majority  of  the  men 

157 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

were  by  no  means  of  the  highest  standard.  The  best  troops 
were  naturally  at  the  front,  and  those  at  home  were  in  large 
part  made  up  of  men  who  had  been  away  from  the  firing- 
line  for  some  weeks  or  even  longer,  and  who  had  been  sub- 
jected to  a  violent  campaign  of  what'  the  Socialists  call 
Aufkldrung,  literally,  clearing  up,  or  enlightenment.  The 
word  is  generally  used  as  part  of  a  phrase,  Aufkldrung  im 
sozial-demokratischen  Sinne,  that  is,  "enlightenment  in  the 
social-democratic  sense."  The  great  majority  of  any  army 
is  made  up  of  men  who  work  with  their  hands.  A  great  part 
of  the  others  consists  of  small  shopkeepers,  clerks  and  others 
whose  associations  in  civilian  life  are  mainly  with  the  work- 
ingmen.  An  appeal  not  to  shoot  one's  "proletarian  brother" 
is,  in  the  nature  of  things,  an  appeal  which  strikes  home  to 
these  people.  The  Kaiser  was  still  nominally  occupying  the 
throne,  but  it  was  certain  that  he  would  abdicate.  This  was 
a  further  element  of  weakness  k>r  the  government,  since 
such  of  the  troops  as  were  still  kaisertrcu  (loyal  to  the  Kai- 
ser) saw  themselves  about  to  be  deprived  of  their  monarch, 
who,  however  they  may  have  regarded  him  personally, 
nevertheless  represented  for  them  the  majesty  and  unity  of 
the  German  State.  Hence,  even  before  the  order  came  not  to 
fire  on  the  people,  the  troops  had  begun  to  place  themselves 
on  the  side  of  the  revolutionaries  and  were  everywhere  per- 
mitting themselves  to  be  disarmed.  Otto  Wels,  a  Majority 
Socialist  member  of  the  Reichstag,  and  others  of  his  col- 
leagues made  the  round  of  the  barracks,  appealing  to  the 
soldiers  not  to  shed  their  brothers'  blood.  And  then  came  the 
no-resistance  order. 

The  streets  filled  with  marching  crowds,  civilians  and 
soldiers,  arm  in  arm,  cheering  and  singing.  Hawkers  ap- 
peared everywhere  with  small  red  flags,  red  rosettes,  red 
ribbons,  red  flowers.  The  red  flag  of  revolution  began  break- 
ing out  on  various  buildings.  Soldiers  tore  off  their  regimen- 
tal insignia  and  removed  the  cockades  from  their  caps. 
Factories  were  deserted. 

The  revolution  had  come ! 


158 


CHAPTER  XL 

The  Kaiser  Abdicates. 

EVENTS  moved  with  lightning  rapidity.  All  that  has 
been  related  in  the  foregoing  chapter  concerning  the 
developments  of  November  9th  had  happened  before 
II  :oo  A.M.  The  Majority  Socialists,  still  in  session  in  the 
Reichstag  and  now  in  complete  fellowship  with  the  Inde- 
pendents and  members  of  the  Workmen's  and  Soldiers' 
Council,  decided  that  the  republic  must  be  proclaimed.  Some 
enterprising  individuals  prepared  an  article  reporting  the 
Kaiser's  abdication.  Ross  took  it  to  the  Vorwdrts,  which 
published  it  in  an  extra  edition,  nearly  two  hours  before  the 
abdication  actually  took  place.  The  paper  was  fairly  torn 
from  the  hands  of  the  venders  in  the  streets,  and  processions 
of  red-ribboned  marchers  became  more  frequent. 

The  cabinet  had  meanwhile  been  in  almost  constant  tele- 
phonic communication  with  the  Kaiser.  It  had  been  re- 
peatedly represented  to  him  that  only  his  abdication  could 
prevent  rioting  and  bloodshed.  But  the  decision  which  he 
was  called  upon  to  make  was  not  an  easy  one,  and  it  cannot 
be  wondered  that  he  hesitated.  He  was  particularly  insistent 
that,  while  he  could  consider  abdicating  as  German  Emper- 
or, he  could  not  and  would  not  abdicate  as  King  of  Prussia. 
The  decision  had  still  not  been  reached  at  noon.  The  cabinet, 
fearing  to  delay  longer,  had  the  following  report  sent  out 
by  the  Wolff  Bureau  : 

"The  Kaiser  and  King  has  decided  to  surrender  the 
throne  (de7n  Throne  zu  entsagen).  The  Imperial  Chancellor 
will  remain  in  office  until  the  questions  connected  with  the 
abdication  of  the  Kaiser,  the  abandoning  by  the  Crown 
Prince  of  the  German  Empire  and  Prussia  of  his  rights  to 
the  throne,  and  the  installation  of  a  regency  shall  have  been 

159 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

adjusted.  It  is  his  intention  to  propose  to  the  regent  the  ap- 
pointment of  Deputy  Ebert  as  Imperial  Chancellor  and  to 
submit  to  him  a  draft  of  a  measure  regarding  the  immedi- 
ate calling  of  general  elections  for  a  constituent  German  na- 
tional assembly,  which  shall  finally  determine  the  future 
form  of  government  of  the  German  people,  and  also  of  those 
peoples  that  may  desire  to  be  included  within  the  borders 
of  the  Empire. 

(signed)   "The  Imperial  Chancellor, 

"Max,  Prince  of  Baden." 

It  will  be  observed  that  this,  so  far  from  being  the  procla- 
mation of  a  republic,  clearly  contemplated  the  continued 
existence  of  the  monarchy.  The  question  of  the  future  form 
of  government  was,  it  is  true,  to  be  left  to  the  national  as- 
sembly, but  if  the  events  of  Saturday  afternoon  and  Sunday 
had  not  occurred  it  is  probable  that  this  assembly  would 
have  decided  upon  a  constitutional  monarchy.  Speculations 
along  this  line  are  of  merely  academic  interest,  but  for  a 
better  understanding  of  the  extent  of  the  reversal  of  these 
two  days  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  a  clear  majority  of  the 
German  people  was  undoubtedly  monarchic  in  principle. 
The  only  body  of  republican  opinion  was  represented  by 
the  Social-Democrats  of  both  wings,  who  composed  less 
than  forty  per  cent  of  the  total  "population,  and  even  among 
them,  as  we  have  seen,  there  were  men  who  felt  that  the 
time  had  not  yet  come  for  a  republic. 

Prince  Max's  proclamation  anticipated  by  a  full  hour  the 
Kaiser's  actual  abdication.  It  was  furthermore  erroneous  in 
its  assertion  that  "the  King"  had  abdicated.  The  Kaiser's 
first  abdication  did  not  include  the  royal  throne  of  Prussia. 
Only  when  all  hope  was  definitely  lost  did  he  surrender 
this. 

A  detachment  of  Jdger  occupied  the  Reichstag,  and  a 
great  crowd  gathered  outside.  Scheidemann,  in  an  address 
from  the  Reichstag  steps,  told  the  crowd  that  the  dynasty 
had  been  overthrown,  and  that  Ebert  had  been  appointed 
to  form  a  new  government  on   republican  lines  and  with 

160 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

the  participation  of  all  political  parties.^  Scheidemann,  like 
Max,  also  anticipated  events,  for  the  republic  had  not  yet 
been  authoritatively  proclaimed,  nor  had  Ebert  been  ap- 
pointed Chancellor. 

Two  hours  later,  shortly  after  2  :oo  P.M.,  Ebert,  Scheide- 
mann, Braun  and  two  members  of  the  Workmen's  and  Sol- 
diers' Council,  Prolat  and  Hiller,  went  to  the  palace  of  the 
Chancellor  in  an  automobile  carrying  a  red  flag  and  guard- 
ed by  armed  soldiers.  They  informed  Prince  Max  that  they 
considered  it  absolutely  necessary  to  form  a  socialistic  gov- 
ernment,^ since  this  alone  could  save  Germany.  The  Prince 
thereupon  requested  Ebert  to  accept  the  chancellorship.  Eb- 
ert complied  and  thus  became  for  one  day  "Imperial  Chan- 
cellor," the  possessor  of  an  office  which  did  not  exist  in  an 
empire  which  no  longer  existed. 

Ebert's  first  act  was  to  proclaim  the  republic  officially.  He 
did  this  in  an  address  to  a  crowd  which  filled  Wilhelm- 
stra.sse  and  Wilhelmplatz  in  front  of  the  Chancellor's  official 
residence.  Hysteric  cheering  followed  the  announcement 
that  the  German  Empire  had  become  history. 

The  greatest  revolution  of  all  times  was  an  accomplished 
fact  before  three  o'clock  on  Saturday  afternoon,  November 
9th.  The  old  system,  with  its  tens  of  thousands  of  trained  and 
specialized  officials ;  with  armies  that  had  successfully  fought 
for  years  against  the  combined  resources  of  the  rest  of  the 
world;  with  citizens  trained  from  their  very  infancy  to  rev- 
erence the  Kaiser  and  to  obey  those  in  authority;  with  the 
moral  support  of  the  monarchic  Germans,  who  far  outnum- 
bered the  republican — this  system  fell  as  a  rotten  tree  falls 
before  a  gale.  The  simile  lacks  in  perfection  because  the  tree 
falls  with  a  crash,  whereas  the  old  German  governmental 
system  made  less  noise  in  its  collapse  than  did  the  Kingdom 
of  Portugal  some  years  earlier.  It  simply  disappeared.  Fuit 
Germania. 

*The  Majority  Socialists  honestly  intended  to  form  a  people's  government 
representing  all  parties.  That  only  Socialists  were  eventually  admitted  was 
due  to  the  flat  refusal  of  the  Independents  to  let  the  despised  bourgeoisie  have 
any  yoice  whatever  in  the  governmental  affairs. 

^"Socialistic"  in  a  non-partisan  sense ;  a  republic  based  on  the  Socialist 
party's  tenets,  but  not  necessarily  conducted  exclusively  by  them.  The 
exclusion  of  the  bourgeoisie  was  a  later  idea. 

161 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

Up  to  this  time  the  Majority  Socialists,  by  stealing  the 
thunder  of  the  .Independents  and  acting  with  a  good  deal 
of  resolution,  had  kept  thertiselves  in  the  center  of  the  stage. 
The  real  makers  of  the  revolution,  the  Independents  and 
Spartacans,  had  been  confined  to  off-stage  work.  It  was 
Liebknecht,  with  his  instinct  for  the  theatrical  and  dramatic, 
who  now  came  to  the  front.  A  vast  crowd  had  gathered 
around  the  royal  palace.  It  was  made  up  in  part  of  the  "class- 
conscious  proletariat,"  but  in  large  part  also  of  the  merely 
curious.  Liebknecht,  accompanied  by  Adolf  Hoffmann^  and 
another  left  wing  Socialist,  entered  the  palace  and  proceeded 
to  a  balcony  in  the  second  story,  where,  lacking  a  red  flag, 
he  hung  a  red  bed-blanket  over  the  rail  of  the  balcony  and 
then  delivered  an  impassioned  harangue  to  the  crowd  below. 
The  real  revolution,  he  declared,  had  only  begun,  and  at- 
tempts at  counter-revolution  could  be  met  only  by  the  vigi- 
lance of  an  armed  proletariat.  The  working-classes  must  arm 
themselves,  the  bourgeoisie  must  be  disarmed.  Hoffmann, 
who  spoke  briefly,  said  that  he  was  enjoying  the  happiest 
and  proudest  moment  of  his  life.  While  he  was  still  speak- 
ing a  red  flag  was  hoisted  over  the  palace,  to  the  cheers  of  the 
people  gathered  around  the  building. 

Some  of  the  palace  guard  had  given  up  their  rifles  and  left 
their  posts.  Others  had  joined  the  revolutionaries.  The  loot- 
ing of  the  palace  began.  It  did  not  assume  great  proportions 
on  this  first  day,  but  many  valuable  articles  had  disappeared 

^Hoffman  was  for  several  years  a  member  of  the  Prussian  Diet  and 
prominent  in  the  councils  of  the  Social-Democratic  party.  Although  a  pro- 
fessed atheist  and  unable  to  write  a  sentence  of  his  mother-tongue  without 
an  error  in  spelling  or  grammar,  he  became  under  the  first  revolutionary 
government  Prussian  Minister  of  Education  (Kultusminister),  with  charge 
over  the  church  and  schools.  Hoffman  left  the  old  party  at  the  time  of  the 
split  in  IQISj  aiid  has  since  been  an  abusive  and  virulent  enemy  of  his  former 
colleagues.  He  distinguished  himself  in  the  Diet  chiefly  by  disregard  of 
the  ordinary  amenities  of  civilized  intercourse  and  parliamentary  forms. 
Speaking  from  the  speaker's  rostrum  in  the  Diet,  with  his  back  to  the  pre- 
siding-officer — after  the  usual  European  custom — he  would  utter  some  in- 
sult to  the  royal  house,  the  authorities  in  general,  one  of  the  bourgeois  par- 
ties of  the  house  or  one  of  the  members.  He  appeared  to  know  instinctively 
whenever  his  remarks  were  inadmissible,  for  he  would  pause,  hunch  up  his 
shoulders  like  one  expecting  to  be  struck  from  behind,  and  wait  for  the  pre- 
siding-officer  to  ring  his  bell  and  call  him  to  order.  A  few  minutes  later  the 
same  scene  would  be  reenacted. 

162 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

when  night  came.  Government  property  of  all  kinds  was 
sold  openly  in  the  streets  by  soldiers  and  civilians.  Rifles 
could  be  had  for  a  few  marks,  and  even  army  automobiles 
were  sold  for  from  three  to  five  hundred  marks.  Processions 
kept  moving  about  the  city,  made  up  in  part  of  soldiers  and 
in  part  of  armed  civilians.  Persons  without  red  badges  were 
often  molested  or  mishandled.  Cockades  in  the  imperial  or 
some  state's  colors  were  torn  from  soldiers'  caps,  their  shoul- 
der insignia  were  ripped  ofi"  and  their  belts  taken  away  by 
the  embryo  and  self-constituted  "red  guard."  The  patriotic 
cockades  inflamed  their  revolutionary  hearts;  the  belts,  being 
of  good  leather — a  rare  article — could  be  used  for  repair- 
ing the  shoes  of  the  faithful.  Oflicers  were  hunted  down, 
their  shoulder-straps  torn  off"  and  their  swords  and  revolvers 
taken  from  them.  Many  officers  were  roughly  handled.  Hun- 
dreds escaped  a  like  fate  by  a  quick  change  into  civilian 
clothing.  The  mobile  vulgus  had  forgotten  that  forty  per 
cent  of  Germany's  active  officer  corps  had  been  killed  in 
fighting  for  their  country,  and  that  a  great  part  of  those 
left  were  crippled  by  wounds.  It  saw  in  these  men  only  the 
representatives  of  an  iron  discipline  and  of  authority — and 
authority  is  hated  by  all  truly  class-conscious  Genossen.  It 
was  this  same  feeling  that  led,  on  the  following  day,  to  the 
disarming  of  the  police — a  measure  which  so  quickly 
avenged  itself  in  an  increase  of  crime  from  which  even  the 
proletariat  suff"ered  that  their  sabers  and  revolvers  were  re- 
stored to  the  police  within  a  month. 

Thus  far  the  revolution  had  been  all  but  bloodless.  The 
brave  officer  of  the  Maikdfer  and  the  four  revolutionaries 
who  fell  before  him  were  the  only  victims.  But  about  6 :  oo 
P.M.,  as  an  automobile  ambulance  turned  into  the  palace 
courtyard,  a  single  shot  was  heard.  Observers  thought  they 
saw  the  smoke  of  the  shot  in  the  central  entrance  to  the  royal 
stables,  which  are  situated  across  the  street  just  south  of  the 
palace.  While  the  source  of  the  shot  was  being  investigated 
a  second  shot  was  fired.  Almost  immediately  machine  guns 
began  firing  from  the  cellar  windows  and  the  first  and  sec- 
ond stories  of  the  stables.^   The  crowd   filling  the  square 

^This  story  of  the  origin  of  Saturday  evening's  shooting  comes  from  the 
Soldiers'  Council,  and  is  undoubtedly  exaggerated.  No  other  report  of  the 
incident  is,  however,  available. 

163 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

melted  away.  Members  of  the  Soldiers'  Council  returned 
the  fire.  The  shooting  continued  until  late  into  the  night, 
when  members  of  the  Soldiers'  Council  entered  the  stables. 
They  found  nobody  there. 

By  whom  or  with  what  intention  the  first  shots  were 
fired  is  not  known.  The  most  radical  of  the  revolutionaries, 
and  especially  the  Liebknecht  followers,  saw  in  them  the 
beginning  of  the  dreaded  "counter-revolution."  The  stables 
were  at  the  time  occupied  by  some  of  the  marines  who  had 
been  brought  to  Berlin  two  days  earlier.  These  men,  who 
were  later  to  cause  the  new  government  so  much  trouble,^ 
were  in  large  part  what  is  so  aptly  expressed  by  the  slang 
term  "roughnecks."  Their  leader  was  a  degraded  officer 
named  Heinrich  Dorrenbach.^  Viewed  in  the  light  of  their 
subsequent  conduct  it  is  impossible  that  they  could  have 
been  won  for  any  counter-revolutionary  movement.  The 
revolutionaries,  however,  who  knew  that  they  had  been 
summoned  by  Prince  Max's  government,  concluded  that  the 
shots  had  been  fired  by  them.  There  were  few  casualties 
from  the  encounter. 

The  Majority  Socialists'  three  delegates  conferred  again 
with  Dittmann,  Vogtherr  and  Ledebour,  the  Independents' 
representatives.  They  were  unable  to  come  to  an  agreement^ 
and  the  Independents  withdrew  to  confer  with  their  party's 
executive  committee.  This  committee  debated  the  question 
for  some  hours  with  the  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Council.* 
Liebknecht,  still  nominally  an  Independent,  for  the  Sparta- 
cus  Bund  had  not  yet  been  formally  organized  as  a  separate 
party;  Ledebour,  Dittmann,  and  Barth,  who  was  chairman 

*It  was  these  men  who  surrounded  the  imperial  chancellery  on  December 
24th,  held  the  cabinet  members  there  incommunicado  by  severing  the  tele- 
phone wires,  and  compelled  the  government  to  grant  their  wage  demands 
and  to  permit  them  to  retain  the  royal  stables  as  barracks.  They  also  helped 
loot  the  palace.  The  government  had  to  disarm  them  during  the  second  "Bol- 
shevik week"  in  Berlin  early  in  March,  when  twenty-four  of  them  were  sum- 
marily executed. 

'Dorrenbach  was  afterward  indicted  in  Brunswick  for  bribery  and  looting. 

*That  the  radical  wing  of  the  German  Socialists  conferred  in  a  party  mat- 
ter with  this  council,  which  was  supposed  to  represent  Socialists  of  both 
parties,  is  significant.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  real  power  in  the  council  was 
from  the  beginning  in  the  hands  of  the  Independent  and  Spartacan  members^ 
and  their  ascendancy  grew  steadily. 

164 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

of  the  council,  took  a  leading  part  in  the  debate  that  ensued. 
It  was  finally  decided  to  make  the  Independents'  participa- 
tion in  the  government  conditional  upon  the  granting  of  cer- 
tain demands.  First  of  all,  the  new  government  must  be  only 
a  provisorium  for  the  conclusion  of  the  armistice,  and  its  ex- 
istence was  to  be  limited  to  three  days.  Before  the  expiration 
of  that  term  the  Soviet  was  to  decide  what  course  should  then 
be  taken.  The  republic  must  be  a  socialistic  republic,^  and 
all  legislative,  executive  and  judicial  power  must  rest  in  the 
hands  of  the  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Councils,  who  were 
to  be  elected  by  "the  laboring  population  under  the  exclusion 
of  all  bourgeois  elements/'^ 

These  demands  were  communicated  to  the  Majority  So- 
cialist delegates,  who,  after  a  conference  with  their  party's 
executive  committee,  rejected  them.  They  especially  opposed 
the  exclusion  of  all  bourgeois  statesmen  from  the  govern- 
ment, declaring  that  this  would  make  the  provisioning  of 
the  people  impossible.  They  demanded  cooperation  of  the 
two  parties  until  the  convening  of  a  constituent  assembly, 
and  rejected  the  three-day  limitation  upon  the  existence  of 
the  government  to  be  formed.  Further  negotiations  between 
the  two  sets  of  delegates  were  agreed  on  for  Sunday  morn- 
ing. 

The  German  Socialists  have  always  had  a  keen  apprecia- 
tion of  the  influence  of  the  press.  No  other  country  has  such 
an  extensive,  well-edited  and  influential  array  of  Socialist 
newspapers  and  periodicals  as  Germany,  and  in  no  other 
country  are  the  Socialists  so  carefully  disciplined  into  tak- 
ing their  political  views  from  their  party  organs.  As  the 
parent  party,  the  Majority  Socialists  already  had  their  press. 
The  Independents  had  no  organ  of  any  importance  in  Ber- 
lin, and  Liebknecht's  Spartacans  had  none  at  all.  This,  for 
persons  who,  if  not  in  abstract  theory,  nevertheless  in  actual 
practice  refuse  to  admit  that  the  bourgeoisie  has  any  rights 
whatever,  was  a  matter  easily  remedied.  Liebknecht,  at  the 

*Here,  as  the  demands  show,  "socialistic"  in  the  most  rigid  and  class-con- 
scious" partisan  sense. 

^The  italics  are  those  of  the  Independents  themselves,  as  used  in  publishing 
their  demands  in  their  party  organ. 

165 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

head  of  a  group  of  armed  soldiers,  went  in  the  evening  to 
the  plant  of  the  Conservative  Lokal-Anzeiger,  turned  out 
the  whole  staff  and  took  possession.  The  paper  appeared 
Sunday  morning  as  Die  rote  Fahne  (The  Red  Flag).  Inde- 
pendent Socialists  and  members  of  the  Workmen's  and  Sol- 
diers' Council  at  the  same  time  took  violent  possession  of  the 
venerable  Norddeutsche  Allgemeine  Zeitung,  which  they 
published  Sunday  morning  as  Die  Internationale. 

The  Wolff  Bureau  had  already  been  occupied  by  members 
of  the  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Council.  It  was  compelled 
to  send  out  any  articles  coming  from  that  council,  and  its 
other  news  dispatches  were  subjected  to  a  censorship  quite 
as  rigid  and  tendencieuse  and  even  less  intelligent  than  that 
prevailing  under  the  old  regime.  The  committee  put  in 
charge  of  the  Wolff  Bureau  was  nominally  composed  of  an 
equal  number  of  Majority  and  Independent  Socialists,  but 
the  latter,  by  dint  of  their  rabid  energy  and  resolution,  were 
able  for  a  long  time  to  put  their  imprint  on  all  news  issuing 
from  the  bureau. 

Die  rote  Fahne  of  Sunday  morning  published  on  the 
first  page  a  leading  article  which  undoubtedly  was  written 
by  Liebknecht  himself.  It  began : 

"Proudly  the  red  flag  floats  over  the  imperial  capital. 
Berlin  has  tardily  followed  the  glorious  example  of  the  Kiel 
sailors,  the  Hamburg  shipyard  laborers  and  the  soldiers 
and  workingmen  of  various  other  states." 

The  article  glorified  the  revolution  and  declared  that  it 
must  sweep  away  "the  remains  and  ruins  of  feudalism." 
There  must  be  not  merely  a  republic,  but  a  socialistic  re- 
public, and  its  flag  must  not  be  "the  black,  red  and  gold 
flag  of  the  bourgeois  Republic  of  1848,  but  the  red  flag  of 
the  international  socialistic  proletariat,  the  red  flag  of  the 
Commune  of  1 871  and  of  the  Russian  revolutions  of  1905 
and  1912.  *  *  *  *  The  revolutionary,  triumphant  proletariat 
must  erect  a  new  order  out  of  the  ruins  of  the  World  War. 
*  *  *  *  The  first  tasks  in  this  direction  are  speedy  peace, 
genuine  proletarian  domination,  reshaping  of  economic  life 
from  the  pseudo-socialism  of  the  war  to  the  real  socialism 
of  peace." 

166 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

The  article  closed  with  an  appeal  to  workingmen  and 
soldiers  to  retain  their  weapons  and  go  forward  "under  the 
victorious  emblem  of  the  red  flag." 

On  the  third  page  of  the  same  issue  appeared  another 
article,  also  probably  from  Liebknecht's  pen.  It  was  an  ap- 
peal to  the  "workmen  and  soldiers  in  Berlin"  to  fortify  the 
power  already  won  by  them.  "The  red  flag  floats  over 
Berlin,"^  wrote  Liebknecht  again.  But  this  was  only  a 
beginning.  "The  work  is  not  finished  with  the  abdication  of  a 
couple  of  Hohenzollerns.  Still  less  is  it  accomplished  by  the 
entrance  into  the  government  of  a  couple  more  government 
Socialists.  These  have  supported  the  bourgeoisie  for  four 
years  and  they  cannot  do  otherwise  now." 

"Mistrust  is  the  first  democratic  virtue,"  declared  Lieb- 
knecht. The  government  must  be  completely  reorganized. 
He  then  set  forth  the  demands  that  must  be  presented.  They 
are  of  interest  as  the  first  formulation  of  the  program  of 
those  who  afterward  became  the  supporters  of  Bolshevist 
ideals  in  Germany.  Except  for  certain  points  designed  only 
to  meet  then  existing  conditions  this  program  is  still  in  es- 
sentials that  of  the  German  Communists,  as  the  Spartacans 
now  term  themselves.  It  follows : 

1.  Disarming  of  the  whole  police  force,  of  all  officers  and  also 
of  such  soldiers  as  do  not  stand  on  the  base  of  the  new  order; 
arming  of  the  people  ;2  all  soldiers  and  proletarians  who  are 
armed  to  retain  their  weapons. 

2.  Taking  over  of  all  military  and  civil  offices  and  commands 
by  representatives  {V ertrauensrndnner)  of  the  Workmen's  and 
Soldiers'  Council. 

3.  Surrender  of  all  weapons  and  stores  of  munitions,  as  well 
as  of  all  other  armaments,  to  the  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Coun- 
cil. 

*No  one  can  long  study  objectively  the  manifestations  of  partisan  Social- 
Democracy  without  feeling  that  there  is  something  pathological  about  the 
fetichistic  worship  of  the  red  flag  by  the  radical  elements  among  the  So- 
cialists. 

^Bewaffnung  des  Volkes ;  "people"  used  as  a  synonym  for  the  proletarian 
section  of  it.  The  Bourgeoisie  are  not  das  Volk  (the  people)  to  the  extreme 
Socialist. 


167 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

4.  Control  by  the  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Council  of  all  means 
of  traffic. 

5.  Abolishment  of  courts-martial;  corpse-like  obedience  {Ka- 
davergehorsam)  to  be  replaced  by  voluntary  discipline  of  the 
soldiers  under  control  of  the  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Council. 

6.  Abolishment  of  the  Reichstag  and  of  all  parliaments,^  as 
well  as  of  the  existing  national  government;  taking  over  of  the 
government  by  the  Berlin  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Council  until 
the  formation  of  a  national  workmen's  and  soldiers'  council. 

7.  Election  throughout  Germany  of  workmen's  and  soldiers' 
councils,  in  whose  hands  exclusively  the  lawgiving  and  adminis- 
trative power  shall  rest. 

8.  Abolishment  of  dynasties^  and  separate  states ;  our  parole  is : 
United  Socialistic  Republic  of  Germany. 

9.  The  immediate  establishing  of  relations  with  all  workmen's 
and  soldiers'  councils  existing  in  Germany,  and  with  the  social- 
istic brother  parties  of  foreign  countries. 

10.  The  immediate  recall  to  Berlin  of  the  Russian  Embassy. 

This  proclamation  closed  by  declaring  that  no  real  So- 
cialist must  enter  the  government  as  long  as  a  single  "gov- 
ernment" Socialist  (Majority)  belonged  to  it.  "There  can 
be  no  cooperation  with  those  who  have  betrayed  us  for  four 
years,"  said  the  proclamation. 

This  item  followed :  ''Die  rote  Fahne  sends  its  first  and 
warmest  greeting  to  the  Federative  Socialistic  Soviet  Repub- 

*Americans  inclined  to  extend  sympathy  to  Liebknecht  (or  his  memory) 
are  again  reminded  that  he  and  his  followers  are  violent  opponents  of  de- 
mocracy. The  same  is  true  of  the  real  leaders  of  the  Independent  Socialists. 

'^Several  of  the  German  dynasties  were  still  in  existence  on  the  morning  of 
November  loth.  King  Friedrich  August  of  Saxony,  Grand  Duke  Ernst  Lud- 
wig  of  Hesse  and  Grand  Duke  Friedrich  August  of  Oldenburg  were  deposed 
on  November  loth,  and  Prince  Heinrich  XXVII  of  Reuss  (younger  line) 
abdicated  on  the  same  day.  The  King  of  Saxony  accepted  his  deposition  by 
a  formal  act  of  abdication  two  days  later.  Duke  Karl  Eduard  of  Saxe- 
Coburg-Gotha,  and  Grand  Duke  Friedrich  Franz  of  Mecklenburg-Schwerin 
abdicated  on  November  13th.  King  Ludwig  of  Bavaria,  whom  Kurt  Eisner 
had  already  declared  deposed,  issued  a  statement  on  November  13th  liberat- 
ing all  officials  from  their  oath  of  allegiance,  "since  I  am  no  longer  in  a  posi- 
tion to  direct  the  government."  The  Munich  Soviet  acknowledged  this  as  an 
act  of  abdiction.  Prince  Friedrich  of  Waldeck-Pyrmont,  refusing  to  abdicate, 
was  deposed  on  the  same  day.  Grand  Duke  Friedrich  of  Baden  and  Prince 
Adolf  of  Schaumburg-Lippe  did  not  leave  their  thrones  until  November  15th. 

168 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

lie  (Russia)  and  begs  that  government  to  tell  our  Russian 
brethren  that  the  Berlin  laboring-class  has  celebrated  the 
first  anniversary  of  the  Russian  revolution  by  bringing 
about  the  German  revolution." 

Die  Internationale  also  published  a  leader  glorifying  the 
revolution  and  declaring  that  "the  red  flag  floats  over  the 
capital."  It  called  on  its  readers  to  be  on  their  guard  and 
closed  with  a  lebe  hoch!^  for  the  German  Socialistic  Re- 
public and  the  Internationale. 

All  the  Sunday  morning  papers  published  a  proclama- 
tion and  an  appeal  by  the  "Imperial  Chancellor,"  Ebert. 
The  proclamation  was  addressed  to  "Fellow  Citizens,"^  and 
was  a  formal  notice  that  Ebert  had  taken  over  his  office 
from  Prince  Max  and  was  about  to  form  a  new  government. 
He  requested  the  aid  of  all  good  citizens  and  warned  es- 
pecially against  any  acts  calculated  to  interfere  with  sup- 
plying food  to  the  f)eople.  The  appeal  was  a  summons  to  all 
officials  throughout  the  country  to  place  themselves  at  the 
disposition  of  the  new  government.*  "I  know  it  will  be  hard 
for  many  to  work  with  the  new  men  who  have  undertaken 
the  conduct  of  the  government,"  said  the  appeal,  "but  I  ap- 
peal to  their  love  for  our  people." 

Sunday  was  ushered  in  with  the  crack  of  rifle  fire  and  the 
rattle  of  machine-guns.  Nervous  Genossen,  incited  by  fa- 
natics or  irresponsible  agitators  saw  the  specter  of  counter- 
revolution on  every  hand  and  circulated  wild  tales  of  officers 

*  Literally,  "may  it  live  high !"  The  French  vive  and  the  English  "hurrah 
for— !" 

^Mithurger.  Subsequent  proclamations  were,  with  few  exceptions,  ad- 
dressed to  Genossen.  The  government  could  not  shake  off  its  party  fetters. 

'It  is  not  possible  to  withhold  admiration  from  the  tens  of  thousands  of 
officials  throughout  Germany  who,  hating  and  despising  party  Socialism,  and 
themselves  monarchic  in  principle  by  tradition  and  training,  nevertheless 
stayed  at  their  posts  and  did  what  they  could  to  prevent  utter  chaos.  The 
choice  was  especially  hard  for  the  men  in  higher  positions,  since  most  of 
these  not  only  had  to  carry  out  orders  of  a  revolutionary  red  government, 
but  also  had  to  submit  to  having  their  daily  acts  controlled  and  their  orders 
altered  and  countersigned  by  a  Genosse  who  was  often  an  unskilled  manual 
laborer.  The  best  traditions  of  German  officialdom  were  honorably  upheld 
by  these  men,  and  it  is  to  them,  rather  than  to  those  at  the  head  of  the  gov- 
ernment, that  credit  is  due  for  even  the  small  measure  of  order  that  was  pre- 
served. 

169 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

firing  on  the  people  from  various  buildings,  chiefly  the  Vic- 
toria Cafe  and  the  Bauer  Cafe  at  the  corner  of  Unter  den 
Linden  and  Friedrichstrasse,  some  buildings  near  the  Fried- 
richstrasse  railway  station,  other  buildings  farther  down 
Unter  den  Linden,  and  the  Engineers'  Society  building  and 
the  official  home  of  the  Reichstag  president,  the  two  last- 
named  buildings  situated  across  the  street  to  the  east  of  the 
Reichstag.  While  it  is  barely  possible  that  some  loyal  cadets 
may  have  fired  on  a  crowd  in  one  or  two  places,  it  has  never 
been  definitely  proved.  The  talk  of  resistance  by  officers  is 
absurd.  The  only  occupant  of  the  residence  of  the  Reichstag 
president,  which  was  fired  at  with  machine  guns  from  the 
roof  of  the  Reichstag,  was  one  frightened  old  woman,  who 
spent  the  day  crouching  in  a  corner  of  the  cellar.  There  was 
nobody  in  the  Engineers'  building.  The  day's  victims  were 
all  killed  to  no  purpose  by  the  wild  shooting  of  persons — 
mainly  youths — who  lost  their  heads.  The  shooting  con- 
tinued on  Monday,  but  gradually  died  out.  The  stories  sent 
to  the  outside  world  through  the  soviet-controlled  Wolff" 
Bureau  of  officers  firing  on  the  revolutionaries  and  then  es- 
caping by  subterranean  passages  were  the  inventions  of  ex- 
cited and  untrained  minds. 

It  had  been  decided  at  Saturday  night's  conference  to 
hold  an  election  on  Sunday  morning  for  district  workmen's 
and  soldiers'  councils,  and  to  hold  a  meeting  at  the  Circus 
Busch  at  five  o'clock  Sunday  afternoon  to  form  the  govern- 
ment. Sunday  morning's  papers  published  the  summons  for 
the  election.  The  larger  factories  were  directed  to  elect  one 
delegate  for  every  thousand  employees.  Factories  employ- 
ing fewer  than  five  hundred  persons  were  directed  to  unite 
for  the  election  of  delegates.  Each  battalion  of  soldiers  was 
also  to  choose  one  delegate.  These  delegates  were  directed 
to  meet  at  Circus  Busch  for  the  election  of  a  provisional 
government. 

The  Majority  Socialists  were  in  a  difficult  position.  The 
Independents  claimed — and  with  right — that  they  had 
"made  the  revolution."  The  preponderance  of  brute  force 
was  probably,  so  far  as  Berlin  alone  was  concerned,  on  their 
side.  In  any  event  they  had  a  support  formidable  enough  to 

170 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

compel  Scheidemann  and  his  followers  to  make  concessions 
to  them.  The  three  delegates  from  each  party  met  again. 
The  result  of  their  deliberations  was  concessions  on  both 
sides.  The  Majority  Socialists  agreed  to  exclude  bourgeois 
elements  from  the  cabinet,  but  the  Independents  agreed 
that  this  should  not  apply  to  those  ministers  (war,  navy, 
etc.),  whose  posts  required  men  of  special  training — the  so- 
called  Fachininister.  The  Independents  consented  to  enter 
the  government  without  placing  a  time-limit  on  their  stay 
or  on  its  existence.  Each  party  was  to  designate  three  "peo- 
ple's commissioners"  {Volksbeauftragte) ^  who  were  to  have 
equal  rights.  The  Independents  stipulated  further  in  their 
conditions  (which  were  accepted)  : 

"The  political  power  shall  be  in  the  hands  of  the  work- 
men's and  soldiers'  councils,  which  shall  be  summoned  short- 
ly from  all  parts  of  the  empire  for  a  plenary  session. 

"The  question  of  a  constituent  assembly  will  not  become 
a  live  issue  until  after  a  consolidation  of  the  conditions  cre- 
ated by  the  revolution,  and  shall  therefore  be  reserved  for 
later  consideration." 

The  Independents  announced  that,  these  conditions  being 
accepted,  their  party  had  named  as  members  of  the  govern- 
ment Hugo  Haase,  Wilhelm  Dittmann  and  Emil  Barth. 
Dittmann  had  but  recently  been  released  from  jail,  where 
he  was  serving  a  short  sentence  for  revolutionary  and  anti- 
war propaganda.  He  was  secretary  of  the  Independent  So- 
cialist party's  executive  committee,  an  honest  fanatic  and 
but  one  step  removed  from  a  communist.  Barth  was  in  every 
way  unfit  to  be  a  member  of  any  government.  There  were 
grave  stories  afloat,  some  of  them  well  founded,  of  his  moral 
derelictions,  and  he  was  a  man  of  no  particular  ability. 
Some  months  later,  and  several  weeks  after  he  had  resigned 
from  the  cabinet,  he  was  found  riding  about  Southern  Ger- 
many on  the  pass  issued  to  him  as  a  cabinet  member  and 
agitating  for  the  overthrow  of  the  government  of  which  he 
had  been  a  part. 

The  Majority  Socialists  selected  as  their  representatives 
in  the  government  Friedrich  (Fritz)  Ebert,  Phillip  Scheide- 
mann and'  Otto  Landsberg,  the  last  named  an  able  and  re- 

171 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

spected  lawyer  and  one  of  the  intellectual  leaders  of  the 
Berlin  Socialists. 

When,  at  5:00  P.M.,  the  combined  workmen's  and  sol- 
diers' councils  of  Greater  Berlin  met  in  the  Circus  Busch, 
Ebert  was  able  to  announce  that  the  differences  between  the 
two  Socialist  parties  had  been  adjusted.  The  announcement 
was  greeted  with  hearty  applause.  The  meeting  had  a  some- 
what stormy  character,  but  was  more  orderly  than  might 
have  been  expected.  A  considerable  number  of  front-sol- 
diers were  present,  and  the  meeting  was  dominated  through- 
out by  them.  They  demonstrated  at  the  outset  that  they  had 
no  sympathy  with  fanatic  and  ultraradical  agitators  and 
measures,  and  Liebknecht,  who  delivered  a  characteristic 
passionate  harangue,  demanding  the  exclusion  of  the  Ma- 
jority Socialists  from  any  participation  in  the  government, 
had  great  difficulty  in  getting  a  hearing.  The  choice  of  the 
six  "people's  commissioners"  was  ratified  by  the  meeting. 

It  is  a  striking  thing,  explainable  probably  only  by  mass- 
psychology,  that  although  the  meeting  was  openly  hostile 
to  Liebknecht  and  his  followers,  it  nevertheless  voted  by  an 
overwhelming  majority,  to  "send  the  Russian  Workmen's 
and  Soldiers'  government  our  fraternal  greetings,"  and  de- 
cided that  the  new  German  government  should  "immediate- 
ly resume  relations  with  the  Russian  government,  whose 
representative  in  Berlin  it  awaits." 

The  meeting  adopted  a  proclamation  declaring  that  the 
first  task  for  the  new  government  should  be  the  conclusion 
of  an  armistice.  "An  immediate  peace,"  said  this  proclama- 
tion, "is  the  revolution's  parole.  However  this  peace  may 
be,  it  will  be  better  than  a  continuation  of  the  unprecedented 
slaughter."^  The  proclamation  declared  that  the  socializa- 
tion of  capitalistic  means  of  production  was  feasible  and 
necessary,  and  that  the  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Council  was 
"convinced  that  an  upheaval  along  the  same  lines  is  being 
prepared  throughout  the  whole  world.  It  expects  confident- 
ly that  the  proletariat  of  other  countries  will  devote  its  en- 
tire might  to  prevent  injustice  being  done  to  the  German 

^Germany  would  have  accepted  almost  any  kind  of  peace  in  November. 
This  is  but  one  of  many  things  indicating  it. 

172 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

people  at  the  end  of  the  war."^  Following  the  adoption  of 
this  proclamation,  the  meeting  elected  a  Vollzugsrat  or  ex- 
ecutive council  from  the  membership  of  the  workmen's  and 
soldiers'  councils  present.  It  was  made  up  of  twenty-eight 
men,  fourteen  workmen  and  fourteen  soldiers,  and  the  Ma- 
jority and  Independent  Socialists  were  represented  on  each 
branch  of  the  council  with  seven  members.  The  twenty-eight 
men  chosen  were  Emil  Barth,  Captain  von  Beerfelde,  Berg- 
mann,  Felix  Bernhagen,  Otto  Braun,  Franz  Buchel,  Max 
Cohen  (Reuss),  Erich  Daumig,  Heinrich  Denecke,  Paul 
Eckert,  Christian  Finzel,  Gelberg,  Gustav  Gerhardt,  Gierth, 
Gustav  Heller,  Ernst  Jiilich,  Georg  Ledebour,  Maynitz, 
Brutus  Molkenbuhr,  Richard  Miiller,  Paul  Neuendorf,  Hans 
Paasche,  Walter  Portner,  Colin  Ross,  Otto  Strobel,  Waltz 
and  P.  Wegmann.  Captain  von  Beerfelde  was  made  chair- 
man of  the  soldiers'  branch  and  Miiller  of  the  workmen's 
representatives  on  this  council.  Miiller,  a  metal-worker  by 
trade,  was  a  rabid  Independent  Socialist,  a  fiery  agitator  and 
bitter  opponent  of  a  constituent  assembly.  It  was  largely  due 
to  his  leadership  and  to  the  support  accorded  him  by  Lede- 
bour and  certain  other  radical  members  of  the  Vollzugsrat 
that  this  council  steadily  drifted  farther  and  farther  toward 
the  Independent  and  Spartacan  side  and  ultimately  became 
one  of  the  greatest  hindrances  to  honest  government  until 
its  teeth  were  drawn  in  December. 

The  council,  however,  started  out  well.  Its  first  act,  follow- 
ing the  Circus  Busch  meeting,  was  to  order  the  Lokal-Anzei- 
ger  and  the  Norddeutsche  Allgemeine  Zeitung  restored  to 
their  lawful  owners,  and  this  was  done.  The  council  formally 
confirmed  the  choice  of  the  six  V olksbeauftragte  and  estab- 
lished rules  for  their  guidance.  Neither  the  council  nor  the 
people's  commissioners  could  claim  to  have  their  mandate 
from  the  whole  Empire,  but  they  assumed  it.  Revolutionary 
governments  cannot  be  particular,  and  Berlin  was,  after  all, 
the  capital  and  most  important  city.  There  was,  further- 

^There  is  something  both  characteristic  and  pathetic  in  the  German  So- 
cialists' confidence  that  the  proletariat  in  the  enemy  countries  would  follow 
their  example.  The  wish  was,  of  course,  father  to  the  thought,  but  it  exhibited 
that  same  striking  inability  to  comprehend  other  peoples'  psychology  that 
characterized  the  Germans  throughout  the  war. 

173 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

more,  no  time  to  wait  for  general  elections.  The  Circus  Busch 
meeting  had  good  revolutionary  precedents^  and  some  sort 
of  central  government  was  urgently  necessary. 

There  was  still  some  scattered  firing  in  Berlin  on  Mon- 
day, but  comparative  order  was  established.  The  six-man 
cabinet  was  in  almost  uninterrupted  session,  and  the  first 
result  of  its  deliberation  was  an  edict,  issued  on  Tuesday, 
making  many  fundamental  changes  in  existing  laws.  The 
edict  lifted  the  "state  of  siege,"  which  had  existed  since  the 
outbreak  of  the  war.  All  limitations  upon  the  right  of  as- 
sembly were  removed,  and  it  was  especially  provided  that 
state  employees  and  officials  should  enjoy  the  right  freely 
to  assemble.  The  censorship  was  abolished,  including  also 
the  censorship  of  theaters.^  "Expression  of  opinion  in  word 
and  print"  was  declared  free.^  The  free  exercise  of  religion 
was  guaranteed.  Amnesty  was  granted  all  political  prison- 
ers, and  pending  prosecutions  for  political  offenses  were 
annulled.*  The  Domestic  Servants  law  was  declared  re- 
pealed.*  It  was  promised  that  a  general   eight-hour  law 

^Consistent  efforts  were  made  by  those  interested  in  discrediting  all  news 
sent  from  Germany  after  the  revolution  to  make  the  general  public  believe 
that  a  rigid  censorship  of  outgoing  letters  and  news  telegrams  was  still  main- 
tained. The  American  so-called  Military  Intelligence — which  is  responsible 
for  an  appalling  amount  of  misinformation — reported  in  January  that  the 
censorship  was  stricter  than  during  the  war.  This  was  untrue.  The  author, 
at  that  time  a  working  journalist  in  Berlin,  was  repeatedly  entrusted  with 
the  censor's  stamp  and  told  to  stamp  his  own  messages  when  they  were  ready, 
since  the  censor  desired  to  leave  his  office.  The  only  reason  for  maintaining 
even  the  formality  of  a  censorship  was  to  prevent  the  illegitimate  transfer  of 
securities  or  money  out  of  the  country.  There  was  no  censorship  whatever  on 
news  messages. 

'The  immediate  result  of  this  was  a  flood  of  new  papers,  periodicals  and 
pamphlets,  some  of  them  pornographic  and  many  of  them  marked  by  the 
grossness  which  unfortunately  characterizes  much  of  the  German  humor. 
Some  of  the  publishers  fouled  their  own  nests  in  a  manner  difficult  to  under- 
stand. One  pamphlet  sold  on  the  streets  was  Die  franzosischen  Liehschaften 
des  deutschen  Kronprinzen  ivdhrend  des  Krieges. 

'This  principle  was  to  make  much  trouble  later  for  the  government,  for 
the  radical  Socialists  consider  murder  a  "political  crime"  if  the  victim  be  a 
bourgeois  politician.  There  are  also  extremists  for  whom  any  prisoner  is  a 
victim  of  capitalism,  and  hundreds  of  dangerous  criminals  were  released  in 
Berlin  and  various  other  cities  in  raids  on  jails  and  prisons. 

*Dom«stic  servants,  particularly  those  in  hotels,  were  real  gainers  by  the 
revolution.  Chambermaids,  for  example,  who  had  always  been  on  duty  from 
6  A.M.  until  II  or  12  p.m.,  suddenly  found  themselves  able,  for  the  first  time 
in  their  lives,  to  get  enough  sleep  and  to  have  some  time  at  their  own  disposal. 

174 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

should  become  effective  not  later  than  January  i,  191 9. 
Other  sociological  reforms  were  promised,  and  woman's 
suffrage  was  introduced  with  the  provision  that  "all  elections 
for  public  offices  shall  hereafter  be  conducted  under  equal, 
secret,  general  and  direct  vote  on  the  proportional  system 
by  all  males  and  females  twenty  years  old  or  over."^  The 
same  system,  it  was  decreed,  should  be  followed  in  the  elec- 
tions for  the  national  assembly. 

Vorwdrts,  in  a  leader  on  the  same  day,  spoke  of  the  con- 
stituent assembly  as  of  a  thing  assured.  A  good  impression 
was  made  by  the  report  that  Hindenburg  had  remained  at 
his  post  and  placed  himself  at  the  disposition  of  the  new 
government.  Prince  Leopold  of  Prussia  also  assured  the 
government  of  his  support. 

The  revolution  had  started  well.  Reports  that  the  Poles 
were  plundering  in  Posen  and  Upper  Silesia  made  little 
impression.  The  proletariat  was  intoxicated  with  its  new- 
liberty.  The  saner  bourgeoisie  were  differently  minded :  ''Das 
Bose  sind  wir  los;  die  Bosen  sind  geblieben/'^ 

^Twenty-five  years  had  formerly  been  the  age  entitling  one  to  vote.  The 
reduction  undoubtedly  operated  primarily  in  favor  of  the  Socialists,  for 
youth  is  inclined  to  radicalism  everywhere. 

'We  have  shaken  oif  the  great  evil ;  the  evil-doers  have  remained. 


175 


CHAPTER  XII. 
"The  German  Socialistic  Republic/' 

THE  character  and  completeness  of  the  revolution 
were  even  yet  not  realized  in  all  parts  of  Germany. 
Rulers  of  various  states,  in  some  places  aided  by 
Majority  Socialists,  made  desperate  eleventh-hour  attempts 
to  save  their  thrones.  Prince  Regent  Aribert  of  Anhalt  re- 
ceived a  deputation  of  National  Liberals,  Progressives  and 
Socialists,  who  presented  a  program  for  parliamentarization. 
The  Socialists,  Progressives,  Clericals  and  Guelphs  in  Bruns- 
wick coalesced  "to  further  a  policy  of  peace  and  progress  and 
to  spare  our  people  severe  internal  disorders."  The  two  Reuss 
principalities  amalgamated,  and  a  reformed  franchise  and 
parliamentarization  were  promised.  The  government  in 
Hesse-Darmstadt  ordered  thorough  parliamentary  reforms. 
The  Wiirttemburg  ministry  resigned  and  the  Progressive 
Reichstag  Deputy  Liesching  was  appointed  Minister-Presi- 
dent. Grand  Duke  Ernst  Wilhelm  of  Saxe-Weimar  re- 
nounced the  right  of  exemption  from  taxation  enjoyed  not 
only  by  him  personally,  but  by  all  his  family  and  court  offi- 
cials. Grand  Duke  Friedrich  Franz  of  Mecklenburg-Schwe- 
rin  received  a  deputation  to  discuss  parliamentary  reforms.  A 
Socialist  meeting  in  Breslau  broke  up  in  disorder  because 
the  Majority  Socialists  opposed  the  Independent  Socialists' 
demand  that  force  be  employed  to  secure  the  fulfillment  of 
their  demands. 

But  dynasties  could  not  longer  be  saved.-  When  night 
came  on  Monday,  the  revolution  in  Germany  was  to  all 
practical  intents  an  accomplished  fact.  Fourteen  of  the  twen- 
ty-ftve  states,  including  all  four  kingdoms  and  all  the  other 
really  important  states,  were  already  securely  in  the  revo- 
lutionaries' hands.  The  red  flag  waved  over  the  historic 

177 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

royal  palace  in  Berlin.  King  Ludwig  of  Bavaria  had  been 
declared  deposed  and  had  fled  from  his  capital.  King  Fried- 
rich  August  of  Saxony  was  still  nominally  occupying  his 
throne,  but  soldiers'  councils  had  taken  over  the  govern- 
ment both  in  Dresden  and  Leipsic,  and  were  considering 
the  King's  abdication.  Wiirttemberg  had  been  declared  a 
republic  and  the  King  had  announced  that  he  would  not 
be  an  obstacle  to  any  movement  demanded  by  the  ma- 
jority of  his  people.  The  free  cities  of  Hamburg,  Bremen 
and  Liibeck  were  being  ruled  by  Socialists.  In  the  grand 
duchies  of  Oldenburg,  Baden,  Hesse  and  the  Mecklenburgs 
the  rulers'  power  was  gone  and  their  thrones  were  tottering. 
Grand  Duke  Ernst  August  of  Brunswick,  the  Kaiser's  son- 
in-law,  abdicated. 

And  the  Kaiser  and  King  of  Prussia  fled. 

Nothing  more  vividly  illustrates  the  physical,  mental  and 
moral  exhaustion  of  the  German  people  at  this  time  than 
the  fact  that  the  former  ruler's  flight  hardly  evoked  more 
than  passing  interest.  Many  newspapers  published  it  with 
no  more  display  than  they  gave  to  orders  by  Germany's  new 
rulers,  and  none  "played  it  up"  as  a  great  news  item. 
^  y^he  clearest  picture  of  the  occurrences  at  the  Kaiser's 
headquarters  on  the  fatal  November  9th  has  been  given  by 
General  Count  von  Schulenberg,  chief  of  the  General  Staff" 
of  the  Crown  Prince's  army.  Von  Schulenberg  was  present 
also  on  November  ist,  when  Minister  of  the  Interior  Drews 
presented  the  government's  request  that  the  Kaiser  abdi- 
cate. Drews  had  hardly  finished  speaking,  reports  von  Schul- 
enberg, before  the  Kaiser  exclaimed : 

"You,  a  Prussian  official,  who  have  sworn  the  oath  of 
fealty  to  your  king,  how  can  you  venture  to  come  before  me 
with  such  a  proposal? 

"Have  you  considered  what  chaos  would  follow?  Think 
of  it !  I  abdicate  for  my  person  and  my  house !  All  the  dynas- 
ties in  Germany  collapse  in  an  instant.  The  army  has  no 
leader,  the  front  disintegrates,  the  soldiers  stream  in  dis- 
order across  the  Rhine.  The  revolutionaries  join  hands, 
murder,  incendiarism  and  plundering  follow,  and  the  enemy 
assists.  I  have  no  idea  of  abdicating.  The  King  of  Prussia 

178 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

may  not  be  false  to  Germany,  least  of  all  at  a  time  like  this. 
I,  too,  have  sworn  an  oath,  and  I  will  keep  it." 

Hindenburg  and  Groener  (Ludendorff's  successor)  shared 
the  Kaiser's  opinion  at  this  time  that  abdication  was  not  to 
be  thought  of.  The  situation,  however,  altered  rapidly  in 
the  next  few  days.  Von  Schulenburg  declares  that  Scheide- 
mann^  was  the  chief  factor  in  the  movement  to  compel  the 
monarch  to  go.  Early  on  the  morning  of  November  9th,  when 
von  Schulenberg  reached  headquarters  building  in  Spa,  he 
found  general  depression.  ''Everybody  appeared  to  have 
lost  his  head."  The  various  army  chiefs  were  present  to  re- 
port on  the  feeling  among  their  men.  Hindenburg  had  re- 
ported to  them  that  revolution  had  broken  out  in  Germany, 
that  railways,  telegraphs  and  provision  depots  were  in  the 
revolutionaries'  hands,  and  that  some  of  the  bridges  across 
the  Rhine  had  been  occupied  by  them.  The  armies  were 
thus  threatened  with  being  cut  off  from  the  homeland.  Von 
Schulenberg  continues : 

"  I  met  Generals  von  Plessen  and  Marschall,  who  told  me 
that  the  Field  Marshall  (Hindenburg)  and  General  Groen- 
er were  on  the  way  to  tell  the  Kaiser  that  his  immediate  ab- 
dication was  necessary.  I  answered:  'You're  mad.  The 
army  is  on  the  Kaiser's  side.'  The  two  took  me  with  them 
to  the  Kaiser.  The  conference  began  by  Hindenburg's  saying 
to  the  Kaiser  that  he  must  beg  to  be  permitted  to  resign, 
since  he  could  not,  as  a  Prussian  officer,  give  his  King  the 
message  which  he  must  give.  The  Kaiser  answered :  'Well, 
let  us  hear  the  message  first.'  Thereupon  Groener  gave  a 
long  description  of  the  situation,  the  homeland  in  the  hands 
of  revolutionists,  revolution  to  be  expected  in  Berlin  at  any 
minute,  and  the  army  not  to  be  depended  on.  To  attempt 
with  the  enemy  in  the  rear  to  turn  the  army  about  and  set 
it  in  march  for  civil  warfare  was  not  to  be  thought  of.  The 
only  salvation  for  the  Fatherland  lay  in  the  Kaiser's  im- 
mediate abdication.  Hindenburg,  the  general  intendant  and 
chief  of  military  railways  agreed  with  Groener." 

The  Kaiser  asked  von  Schulenberg's  opinion.  He  dis- 
agreed with  the  others,  and  counseled  resistance.  He  agreed 

^Cf.  Scheidemann's  statement  to  von  Payer,  chapter  viii. 

179 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

that  it  would  be  impossible  to  invade  all  Germany  with 
united  front,  but  advocated  an  attack  on  a  few  places,  such 
as  Cologne  and  Aachen,  with  picked  troops,  and  an  appeal 
to  the  people  to  rise  against  the  marines,  who  had  been  "in- 
cited to  action  by  the  Jews,  who  had  made  great  profits  in 
the  war,  and  by  persons  who  had  escaped  doing  their  duty 
in  the  war  and  were  now  trying  to  knife  the  army  in  the 
back." 

The  Kaiser  approved  this  counsel.  He  would  not  abdicate, 
he  declared,  nor  would  he  have  any  part  in  bringing  about 
civil  warfare,  but  Cologne,  Aachen  and  Verviers  must  be 
attacked  immediately. 

Groener  was  unconvinced.  He  declared  that  the  revolu- 
tion had  gone  too  far  and  was  too  well  organized  through- 
out Germany  to  make  it  possible  to  put  it  down  by  force  of 
arms.  Moreover,  he  said,  several  army  chiefs  had  reported 
that  the  army  could  no  longer  be  depended  on.  The  Kaiser 
thereupon  asked  for  a  report  from  every  army  chief  on  the 
army's  dependability.  A  summons  to  this  effect  was  sent  out, 
and  Groener,  Hindenburg  and  von  Schulenberg  remained 
with  the  Kaiser. 

One  calamitous  report  after  another  began  coming  from 
Berlin.  The  military  governor  reported  that  he  had  no  long- 
er any  dependable  troops.  The  Chancellor  telephoned  that 
civil  war  was  inevitable  unless  the  Kaiser's  abdication  was 
received  within  a  few  minutes.  The  Kaiser  and  the  Crown 
Prince  conferred  together.  Another  report  came  from  the 
Chancellor  that  the  situation  in  Berlin  was  steadily  becom- 
ing graver.  Admiral  von  Hintze,  Minister  of  Foreign  Af- 
fairs, who  had  joined  the  little  group  in  the  Kaiser's  rooms, 
declared  that  the  monarchy  could  not  be  saved  unless  the 
Kaiser  abdicated  at  once. 

Von  Schulenberg  continues : 

"His  Majesty  thereupon  told  Excellency  von  Hintze  to 
telephone  to  the  Chancellor  that,  in  order  to  prevent  blood- 
shed, he  would  abdicate  as  Kaiser,  but  that  he  would  remain 
as  King  of  Prussia  and  not  leave  his  army.  I  declared  that 
His  Majesty's  decision  should  be  formulated  in  writing  and 
telephoned  to  the  Chancellor  only  when  it  bore  the  Kaiser's 

180 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

signature.  His  Majesty  thereupon  commissioned  Excellency 
von  Hintze,  Generals  von  Pless  and  Marschall  and  myself 
to  draw  up  the  declaration.  While  we  were  at  work  on  it, 
the  chief  of  the  Imperial  Chancellery,  Excellency  von 
Wahnschaffe,  telephoned.  I  talked  with  him  myself,  and 
when  he  said  that  the  abdication  must  be  in  Berlin  within  a 
few  minutes,  answered  that  such  an  important  matter  as 
the  Kaiser's  abdication  could  not  be  completed  in  a  few 
minutes.  The  decision  was  made  and  was  now  being  put  into 
form;  the  government  must  be  patient  for  the  half-hour 
that  would  be  required  to  place  the  abdication  in  its  hands. 
The  declaration  had  the  following  form : 

'"i.  His  Majesty  is  prepared  to  abdicate  as  Itaiser  if  fur- 
ther bloodshed  can  be  hindered  thereby. 

"  '2.  His  Majesty  desires  that  there  be  no  civil  war. 

'"3.  His  Majesty  remains  as  King  of  Prussia  and  will  lead 
his  army  back  to  the  homeland  in  disciplined  order.' 

"This  declaration  was  approved  and  signed  by  His  Maj- 
esty, and  was  telephoned  by  Excellency  von  Hintze  to  the 
Chancellery.  At  8:10  o'clock  in  the  evening  His  Majesty 
received  from  the  office  of  the  Imperial  Chancellor  a  report 
of  the  announcement  made  public  through  the  Wolff  Bureau, 
in  which  the  Imperial  Chancellor,  without  waiting  for  the 
Kaiser's  answer,  had  reported  the  Kaiser's  abdication  as 
Kaiser  and  King.  His  Majesty  received  the  news  with  the 
deepest  seriousness  and  with  royal  dignity.  He  asked  my 
views  on  the  situation.  I  answered : 

'*  'It  is  a  coup  d'etat,  an  abuse  of  power  to  which  your 
Majesty  must  not  submit.  Your  Majesty  is  King  of  Prussia, 
and  there  is  now  more  than  ever  a  pressing  necessity  for 
Your  Majesty  to  remain  with  the  army  as  supreme  com- 
mander. I  guarantee  that  it  will  be  true  to  Your  Majesty.' 

"His  Majesty  replied  that  he  was  and  would  remain  King 
of  Prussia,  and  that  he  would  not  abandon  the  army.  There- 
upon he  commissioned  Generals  von  Pless  and  Marschall 
and  Excellency  von  Hintze  to  report  to  the  Field  Marshal 
what  had  happened.  He  then  took  leave  of  the  Crown  Prince 
and  of  me.  After  I  had  left,  he  called  me  back,  thanked  me 
once  more  and  said : 

181 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

*"I  remain  King  of  Prussia  and  I  remain  with  the  troops.' 

"I  answered: 

"'Come  to  the  front  troops  in  my  section.  Your  Majesty- 
will  be  in  absolute  safety  there.  Promise  me  to  remain  with 
the  army  in  all  events.' 

"His  Majesty  took  leave  of  me  with  the  words : 

"T  remain  with  the  army.' 

"I  took  leave  of  him  and  have  not  seen  him  again."  jy 

In  the  general  condemnation  of  the  Kaiser,  his  flight  to 
Holland  has  been  construed  as  due  to  cowardice.  His  motives 
are  unimportant,  but  this  construction  appears  to  be  unjust. 
He  was  convinced  that  he  had  nothing  to  fear  from  his 
people,  nor  is  there  any  reason  to  suppose  that  he  would  for 
a  moment  have  been  in  danger  if  he  had  remained.  It  is  also 
probable  that  he  entertained  hopes  of  leading  a  successful 
counter-revolutionary  movement.  But  his  protests  were 
overruled  by  men  in  whom  he  had  great  confidence.  Hin- 
denburg  and  Groener,  following  an  unfavorable  report  from 
nearly  all  the  army  chiefs  regarding  the  feeling  in  their 
commands,  told  the  Kaiser  that  they  could  not  guarantee 
his  safety  for  a  single  night.  They  declared  even  that  the 
picked  storm-battalion  guarding  his  headquarters  at  Spa 
was  not  to  be  depended  on. 

Others  added  their  entreaties,  and  finally,  unwillingly 
and  protestingly,  the  Kaiser  consented  to  go. 

With  him  went  the  Crown  Prince.  There  was  no  one  left 
in  Germany  to  whom  adherents  of  a  counter-revolution 
_could  rally.  Scheming  politicians  for  months  afterward 
painted  on  every  wall  the  spectre  of  counter-revolution,  and 
it  proved  a  powerful  weapon  of  agitation  against  the  more 
conservative  and  democratic  men  in  charge  of  the  country's 
affairs,  but  counter-revolution  from  above — and  that  was 
what  these  leaders  falsely  or  ignorantly  pretended  to  fear — 
was  never  possible  from  the  time  the  armistice  was 
signed  until  the  peace  was  made  at  Versailles.  Counter-revo- 
lution ever  threatened  the  stability  of  the  government,  but 
it  was  the  gory  counter-revolution  of  Bolshevism. 

The  Kaiser's  flight  had  the  double  effect  of  encouraging 
the  Socialists  and  discouraging  the  Conservatives,  the  right 

182 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

wing  of  the  National  Liberals  and  the  few  prominent  men 
of  other  bourgeois  parties  from  whom  at  least  a  passive  re- 
sistance might  otherwise  have  been  expected.  The  Junkers 
disappeared  from  view,  and,  disappearing,  took  with  them 
the  ablest  administrative  capacities  of  Germany,  men  whose 
ability  was  unquestioned,  but  who  were  now  so  severely 
compromised  that  any  participation  by  them  in  a  demo- 
cratic government  was  impossible.  "The  German  People's 
Republic"  as  it  had  been  termed  for  a  brief  two  days,  be- 
came the  "German  Socialistic  Republic."  Numerically  the 
strongest  party  in  the  land,  the  Socialists  of  all  wings  in- 
sisted upon  putting  the  red  stamp  upon  the  remains  of  Im- 
perial Germany. 

In  their  rejoicing  at  the  revolution  and  the  end  of  the 
war,  the  great  mass  of  the  people  forgot  for  the  moment  that 
they  were  living  in  a  conquered  land.  Those  that  did  re- 
member it  were  lulled  into  a  feeling  of  over-optimistic  se- 
curity by  the  recollection  of  President  Wilson's  repeated 
declarations  that  the  war  was  being  waged  against  the  Ger- 
man governmental  system  and  not  against  the  German  peo- 
ple, and  by  the  declaration  in  Secretary  Lansing's  note  of 
the  previous  week  that  the  Allies  had  accepted  the  Presi- 
dent's peace  points  with  the  exception  of  the  second. 

The  Soldiers'  and  Workmen's  Councils  held  plenary  ses- 
sions on  Monday  and  ratified  the  proceedings  of  Sunday. 
The  spirit  of  the  proceedings,  especially  in  the  Soldiers' 
Council,  was  markedly  moderate.  Ledebour,  one  of  the  most 
radical  of  the  Independent  Socialists,  was  all  but  howled 
down  when  he  tried  to  address  the  soldiers'  meeting  in  the 
Reichstag.  Colin  Ross,  appealing  for  harmonious  action  by 
all  factions  of  Social-Democracy,  was  received  with  ap- 
plause. The  Volhugsrat,  which  was  now  in  theory  the  su- 
preme governing  body  of  Germany,  also  took  charge  of  the 
affairs  of  Prussia  and  Berlin.  Two  Majority  and  two  Inde- 
pendent Socialists  were  appointed  "people's  commissioners" 
in  Berlin.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  all  four  of  these  men  were 
Jews.  Almost  exactly  one  per  cent  of  the  total  population 
of  Germany  was  made  up  of  Jews,  but  here,  as  in  Russia, 
they  played  a  part  out  of  all  proportion  to  their  numbers. 

183 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

In  all  the  revolutionary  governmental  bodies  formed  under 
the  German  Socialistic  Republic  it  would  be  difficult  to  find 
a  single  one  in  which  they  did  not  occupy  from  a  quarter  to 
a  half  of  all  the  seats,  and  they  preponderated  in  many 
places. 

The  Vollzugsrat  made  a  fairly  clean  sweep  among  the 
Prussian  ministers,  filling  the  majority  of  posts  with  Ge- 
nossen.  Many  of  the  old  ministers,  however,  were  retained 
in  the  national  government,  including  Dr.  Solf  as  Foreign 
Minister  and  General  Scheuch  as  Minister  of  War,  but 
each  of  the  bourgeois  ministers  retained  was  placed  under 
the  supervision  of  two  Socialists,  one  from  each  party,  and 
he  could  issue  no  valid  decrees  without  their  counter-sig- 
nature. The  same  plan  was  followed  by  the  revolutionary 
governments  of  the  various  federal  states.  Some  of  the  con- 
trollers selected  were  men  of  considerable  ability,  but  even 
these  were  largely  impractical  theorists  without  any  experi- 
ence in  administration.  For  the  greater  part,  however,  they 
were  men  who  had  no  qualifications  for  their  important 
posts  except  membership  in  one  of  the  Socialist  parties  and 
a  deep  distrust  of  all  bourgeois  officials.  The  Majority  So- 
cialist controllers,  even  when  they  inclined  to  agree  with 
their  bourgeois  department  chiefs  on  matters  of  policy,  rare- 
ly dared  do  so  because  of  the  shibboleth  of  solidarity  still 
uniting  to  somte  degree  both  branches  of  the  party.  Later, 
when  the  responsibilities  of  power  had  sobered  them  and 
rendered  them  more  conservative,  and  when  they  found 
themselves  more  bitterly  attacked  than  the  bourgeoisie  by 
their  former  Genossen,  they  shook  off  in  some  degree  the 
thralldom  of  old  ideas,  but  meanwhile  great  and  perhaps 
irreparable  damage  had  been  done. 

The  revolutionary  government  faced  at  the  very  outset  a 
more  difficult  task  than  had  ever  confronted  a  similar  gov- 
ernment at  any  time  in  the  world's  history.  The  people, 
starving,  their  physical,  mental  and  moral  powers  of  re- 
sistance gone,  were  ready  to  follow  the  demagogue  who 
made  the  most  glowing  promises.  The  ablest  men  of  the 
Empire  were  sulking  in  their  tents,  or  had  been  driven  into 
an  enforced  seclusion,  and  the  men  in  charge  of  the  govern- 

184 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

ment  were  without  any  practical  experience  in  governing 
or  any  knowledge  of  constructive  statecraft.  Every  one  knew 
that  the  war  was  practically  ended,  biit  thousands  of  men 
were  nevertheless  being  slaughtered  daily  to  no  end. 

In  all  the  Empire's  greater  cities  the  revolutionaries,  put- 
ting into  disastrous  effect  their  muddled  theories  of  the 
"brotherhood  of  man,"  had  opened  the  jails  and  prisons  and 
flooded  the  country  with  criminals.  What  this  meant  is  dim- 
ly indicated  by  the  occurrences  in  Berlin  ten  days  later, 
when  Spartacans  raided  Police  Headquarters  and  liberated 
the  prisoners  confined  there.  Among  the  forty-nine  per- 
sons thus  set  free  were  twenty-eight  thieves  and  bur- 
glars and  five  blackmailers  and  deserters;  most  of  the 
others  were  old  offenders  with  long  criminal  records. 
This  was  but  the  grist  from  one  jail  in  a  sporadic  raid  and 
the  first  ten  days  of  November  had  resulted  in  wholesale 
prison- releases  of  the  same  kind.  The  situation  thus  created 
would  have  been  threatening  enough  in  any  event,  but  the 
new  masters  of  the  German  cities,  many  of  whom  had  good 
personal  reasons  for  hating  all  guardians  of  law  and  order, 
disarmed  the  police  and  further  crippled  their  efficiency  by 
placing  them  under  the  control  of  "class-conscious"  soldiers 
who,  at  a  time  when  every  able-bodied  fighting  man  was 
needed  on  the  west  front,  filled  the  streets  of  the  greater 
cities  and  especially  of  Berlin.  ^ 

The  result  was  what  might  have  been  expected.  Many  of 
the  new  guardians  of  law  and  order  were  themselves  mem- 
bers of  the  criminal  classes,  and  those  who  were  not  had 
neither  any  acquaintance  with  criminals  and  their  ways  nor 
with  methods  of  preventing  or  detecting  crime.  The  police, 
deprived  of  their  weapons  and — more  fatal  still — of  their 
authority,  were  helpless.  And  this  occurred  in  the  face  of  a 
steadily  increasing  epidemic  of  criminality,  and  especially 
juvenile  criminality,  which  had  been  observed  in  all  belliger- 
ent countries  as  one  of  the  concomitants  of  war  and  attained 
greater  proportions  in  Germany  than  anywhere  else. 

Nor  was  this  the  only  encouragement  of  crime  officially 
offered.  In  ante-bellum  days,  when  German  cities  were  or- 
derly and  efficient  police  and  gendarmerie  carefully  watched 

185 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

the  comings  and  goings  of  every  inhabitant  or  visitor  in  the 
land,  every  person  coming  into  Germany  or  changing  his 
residence  was  compelled  to  register  at  the  police-station  in 
his  district.  But  now,  when  the  retention  and  enforcement 
of  this  requirement  would  have  been  of  inestimable  value 
to  the  government,  it  was  generally,  abolished.  The  writer, 
reaching  Berlin  a  week  after  the  revolution,  went  directly 
to  the  nearest  police-station  to  report  his  arrival. 

"You  are  no  longer  required  to  report  to  the  police,"  said 
the  Beamier  in  charge. 

And  thus  the  bars  were  thrown  down  for  criminals  and — 
what  was  worse — for  the  propagandists  and  agents  of  the 
Russian  Soviet  Republic.  Die  neue  Freiheit  (the  new  free- 
dom) was  interpreted  in  a  manner  justifying  Goethe's  fa- 
mous dictum  of  a  hundred  years  earlier  that  "equality  and 
freedom  can  be  enjoyed  only  in  the  delirium  of  insanity" 
(Gleichheit  und  Freiheit  konnen  nur  im  Taumel  des  Wahn- 
sinns  genossen  werden). 

The  Vollzugsrat,  from  whose  composition  better  things 
had  been  expected,  immediately  laid  plans  for  the  formation 
of  a  Red  Guard  on  the  Russian  pattern.  On  November  13th 
it  called  a  meeting  of  representatives  of  garrisons  in  Greater 
Berlin  and  of  the  First  Corps  of  Konigsberg  to  discuss  the 
functions  of  the  Soldiers'  Council.  It  laid  before  the  meeting 
its  plan  to  equip  a  force  of  two  thousand  "socialistically 
schooled  and  politically  organized  workingmen  with  mili- 
tary training"  to  guard  against  the  danger  of  a  counter- 
revolution. It  redounds  to  the  credit  of  the  soldiers  that 
they  immediately  saw  the  cloven  hoof  of  the  proposal.  "Why 
do  we  need  two  thousand  Red  Guards  in  Berlin?"  was  the 
cry  that  arose.  Opposition  to  the  plan  was  practically  unani- 
mous, and  the  meeting  adopted  the  following  resolution : 

"  Greater  Berlin's  garrison,  represented  by  its  duly  elect- 
ed Soldiers'  Council,  will  view  with  distrust  the  weaponing 
of  workingmen  as  long  as  the  government  which  they  are 
intended  to  protect  does  not  expressly  declare  itself  in  favor 
of  summoning  a  national  assembly  as  the  only  basis  for  the 
adoption  of  a  constitution." 

The  meeting  took  a  decided  stand   against   Bolshevism 

186 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

and,  in  general,  against  sweeping  radicalism.  All  speakers 
condemned  terrorism  from  whatever  side  it  might  be  at- 
tempted, and  declared  that  plundering  and  murder  should 
be  summarily  punished.  The  destructive  plans  of  the  Spar- 
tacus  group  found  universal  condemnation,  and  nearly  all 
speakers  emphasized  that  the  Soldiers'  Council  had  no  politi- 
cal role  to  play.  Its  task  was  merely  to  preserve'order,  protect 
the  people  and  assist  in  bringing  about  an  orderly  admin- 
istration of  the  government's  affairs.  The  council  adopted 
a  resolution  calling  for  the  speediest  possible  holding  of 
elections  for  a  constituent  assembly. 

On  the  following  day  the  Vollsugsrat  announced  that, 
in  view  of  the  garrisons'  opposition,  orders  for  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Red  Guard  had  been  rescinded.  The  Soldiers' 
Council  deposed  Captain  von  Beerfelde,  one  of  their  four- 
teen representatives  on  the  executive  council,  "because  he 
was  endeavoring  to  lead  the  revolution  into  the  course  of 
the  radicals."  It  was  von  Beerfelde  who,  supporting  the 
fourteen  workmen's  representatives  on  the  Vollzugsrat,  had 
been  largely  instrumental  in  the  original  decision  to  place 
the  capital  at  the  mercy  of  an  armed  rabble. 

The  steadfast  attitude  of  the  soldiers  was  the  more  as- 
tonishing in  view  of  the  great  number  of  deserters  in  Great- 
er Berlin  at  this  time.  Their  number  has  been  variously  esti- 
mated, but  it  is  probable  that  it  reached  nearly  sixty  thou- 
sand. With  an  impudent  shamelessness  impossible  to  under- 
stand, even  when  one  realizes  what  they  had  suffered,  these 
self-confessed  cowards  and  betrayers  of  honest  men  now 
had  the  effrontery  to  form  a  "Council  of  Deserters,  Strag- 
glers and  Furloughed  Soldiers,"  and  to  demand  equal  rep- 
resentation on  all  government  bodies  and  in  the  Soviets. 
Liebknecht  played  the  chief  role  in  organizing  these  men, 
but  Ledebour,  already  so  radical  that  he  was  out  of  sympa- 
thy even  with  the  reddest  Independent  Socialists,  and  cer- 
tain other  Independents  and  Spartacans  assisted.  This  was 
too  much  for  even  the  revolutionary  and  class-conscious 
soldiers  under  arms,  and  nearly  a  month  later  at  least  one 
Berlin  regiment  still  retained  enough  martial  pride  to  fire 
on  a  procession  of  these  traitors. 

187 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

In  these  deserters  and  stragglers,  and  in  the  thousands  of 
criminals  of  every  big  city,  including  those  liberated  from 
jails  and  prisons  by  the  revolution,  Liebknecht  and  his 
lieutenants  found  tools  admirably  adapted  to  their  ends. 
The  Spartacans  had  already  been  indirectly  recognized  as 
a  separate  political  party  in  an  announcement  made  by  the 
Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Council  on  November  i  ith,  which, 
referring  to  the  seizure  of  the  Lokal-Anzeiger  by  the  Spar- 
tacans and  of  the  Norddeutsche  Allgemeine  Zeitung  by  the 
Independents,  pointed  out  that  "all  the  Socialist  factions  in 
Berlin  now  have  their  daily  paper."  The  Spartacans  now 
organized.  Ledebour,  an  aged  fanatic,  temperamental,  never 
able  to  agree  with  the  tenets  or  members  of  any  existing 
party,  organized  an  "Association  of  Revolutionary  Fore- 
men," which  was  recruited  from  the  factories  and  made  up 
of  violent  opponents  of  democratic  government.  To  all  in- 
tents and  purposes  this  association  must  be  reckoned  as  a 
wing  of  the  Spartacus  group.  It  played  a  large  part  in  the 
January  and  March  uprisings  against  the  government,  and 
throughout  strengthened  the  hands  of  the  opponents  of  de- 
mocracy and  the  advocates  of  soviet  rule  in  Germany. 

Despite  all  its  initial  extravagances,  the  bona  fides  of  th« 
Ebert-Haase  government  at  this  time  cannot  fairly  be  ques- 
tioned. It  honestly  desired  to  restore  order  in  Germany  and 
to  institute  a  democratic  government.  With  the  exception 
of  Barth,  the  least  able  and  least  consequential  member  of 
the  cabinet,  all  were  agreed  that  a  constituent  assembly 
must  be  summoned.  Haase  and  Dittmann,  the  two  other 
Independent  Socialist  members,  had  not  yet  begun  to  co- 
quet with  the  idea  of  soviet  government,  although,  in  the 
matter  of  a  constituent  assembly,  they  were  already  trying 
to  hunt  with  the  hounds  and  run  with  the  hares  by  favoring 
its  summoning,  but  demanding  that  the  elections  therefor 
be  postponed  until  the  people  could  be  "enlightened  in  the 
Social-Democratic  sense."  This  meant,  of  course,  "in  the 
Independent  Social-Democratic  sense,"  which,  as  we  shall 
see,  eventually  degenerated  into  open  advocacy  of  the  domi- 
nation of  the  proletariat. 

To  this   government,    facing  multifold   tasks,    inexperi- 

188 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

enced  in  ruling,  existing  only  on  sufferance  and  at  best  a 
makeshift  and  compromise,  the  armistice  of  November  nth 
dealt  a  terrible  moral  and  material  blow.  A  wave  of  stupe- 
fied indignation  and  resentment  followed  the  publication 
of  its  terms,  and  this  feeling  was  increased  by  the  general 
realization  of  Germany's  helplessness.  Hard  terms  had,  in- 
deed, been  expected,  but  nothing  like  these.  One  of  the 
chief  factors  that  made  bloodless  revolution  possible  had 
been  the  reliance  of  the  great  mass  of  the  German  people  on 
the  declarations  of  leaders  of  enemy  powers — particularly  of 
the  United  States — that  the  war  was  being  waged  against 
the  German  governmental  system,  the  HohenzoUerns  and 
militarism,  and  not  against  the  people  themselves.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  that  these  promises  of  fair  treatment  for  a  demo- 
cratic Germany  did  incalculably  much  to  paralyze  opposi- 
tion to  the  revolution. 

In  the  conditions  of  the  armistice  the  whole  nation  con- 
ceived itself  to  have  been  betrayed  and  deceived.  Whether 
this  feeling  was  justified  is  not  the  part  of  the  historian  to  de- 
cide. It  is  enough  that  it  existed.  It  was  confirmed  and 
strengthened  by  the  fact  that  the  almost  unanimous  opinion 
of  neutral  lands,  including  even  those  that  had  been  the 
strongest  sympathizers  of  the  Allied  cause,  condemned  the 
armistice  terms  unqualifiedly,  both  on  ethical  and  material 
grounds.  It  is  ancient  human  experience  that  popular  dis- 
affection first  finds  its  scapegoat  in  the  government,  and 
history  repeated  itself  here.  The  unreflecting  masses  forgot 
for  the  moment  the  government's  powerlessness.  It  saw  only 
the  abandonment  of  rich  German  lands  to  the  enemy,  the 
continuance  of  the  "hunger-blockade"  and,  worst  of  all,  the 
retention  by  the  enemy  of  the  German  prisoners.  Of  all  the 
harsh  provisions  of  the  armistice,  none  other  caused  so 
much  mental  and  moral  anguish  as  the  realization  that, 
while  enemy  prisoners  were  to  be  sent  back  to  their  families, 
the  Germans,  many  of  whom  had  been  in  captivity  since  the 
first  days  of  the  war,  must  still  remain  in  hostile  prison- 
camps.  The  authority  of  the  government  that  accepted  these 
terms  was  thus  seriously  shaken  at  the  very  outset. 

The  government  was  as  seriously  affected  materially  as 

189 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

morally  by  the  armistice.  During  the  whole  of  the  last  year 
food  and  fuel  conditions  had  been  gravely  affected  by  lim- 
ited transportation  facilities.  Now,  with  an  army  of  several 
millions  to  be  brought  home  in  a  brief  space  of  time,  five 
thousand  locomotives  and  150,000  freight  cars  had  to  be 
delivered  up  to  the  enemy.  This  was  more  than  a  fifth  of  the 
entire  rolling  stock  possessed  by  Germany  at  this  time.  More- 
over, nearly  half  of  all  available  locomotives  and  cars  were 
badly  in  need  of  repairs,  and  a  considerable  percentage  of 
these  were  in  such  condition  that  they  could  not  be  used  at 
all.  Nor  was  this  all.  Although  nothing  had  been  stipulated 
in  the  armistice  conditions  regarding  the  size  or  character  of 
the  engines  to  be  surrendered,  only  the  larger  and  more 
powerful  ones  were  accepted.  One  month  later  it  had  been 
found  necessary  to  transport  810  locomotives  to  the  places 
agreed  upon  for  their  surrender,  and  of  these  only  206  had 
been  accepted.  Of  15,720  cars  submitted  in  the  same  period, 
only  9,098  had  been  accepted.  The  result  was  a  severe  over- 
burdening of  the  German  railways. 

What  this  meant  for  Germany's  economic  life  and  for 
the  people  generally  became  apparent  in  many  ways 
during  the  winter,  and  in  none  more  striking  than  in  a  fuel 
shortage  which  brought  much  suffering  to  the  inhabitants  of 
the  larger  cities.  The  coalfields  of  the  Ruhr  district  required 
twenty-five  thousand  cars  daily  to  transport  even  their  di- 
minishing production,  but  the  number  available  dropped  be- 
low ten  thousand.  Only  eight  hundred  cars  were  available 
to  care  for  the  production  in  Upper  Silesia,  and  a  minimum 
of  three  thousand  was  required.  The  effect  on  the  transpor- 
tation of  foodstuffs  to  the  cities  cannot  so  definitely  be  esti- 
mated, but  that  it  was  serious  is  plain. 

The  armistice  provided  that  the  blockade  should  be  main- 
tained. In  reality  it  was  not  only  maintained,  but  extended. 
Some  of  the  most  fertile  soil  in  Germany  lies  on  the  left 
bank  of  the  Rhine,  and  cities  along  that  river  had  depended 
on  these  districts  for  much  of  their  food.  With  enemy  occu- 
pation, these  supplies  were  cut  off.  What  this  meant  was 
terribly  apparent  in  Diisseldorf  after  the  occupation  had 
been  completed.   Dusseldorf,  with  a  population  of  nearly 

190 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

400,000,  had  depended  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine  for 
virtually  all  its  dairy  products.  These  were  now  cut  off,  and 
the  city  authorities  found  themselves  able  to  secure  a  maxi- 
mum of  less  than  7,000  quarts  of  milk  daily  for  the  inhabit- 
ants. 

A  further  extension  of  the  blockade  came  when  German 
fishermen  were  forbidden  to  fish  even  in  their  territorial 
waters  in  the  North  Sea  and  the  Baltic.  The  available  sup- 
ply of  fish  in  Germany  had  already  dropped,  as  has  been 
described,  to  a  point  where  it  was  possible  to  secure  a  ration 
only  once  in  every  three  or  four  weeks.  And  now  even  this 
trifling  supply  was  no  longer  available.  Vast  stores  of  food 
were  abandoned,  destroyed  or  sold  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
occupied  districts  when  the  armies  began  the  evacuation  of 
France  and  Belgium,  and  millions  of  soldiers,  returning 
to  find  empty  larders  at  home,  further  swelled  the  ranks  of 
the  discontented. 

Only  the  old  maxim  that  all  is  fair  in  war  can  explain  or 
justify  the  great  volume  of  misleading  reports  that  were 
sent  out  regarding  food  conditions  in  Germany  in  the 
months  following  the  armistice.  Men  who  were  able  to  spend 
a  hundred  marks  daily  for  their  food,  or  whose  observations 
were  limited  to  the  most  ferti^le  agricultural  districts  of 
Germany,  generalized  carelessly  and  reported  that  there 
were  no  evidences  of  serious  shortage  anywhere,  except 
perhaps,  in  one  or  two  of  the  country's  largest  cities.  Men 
who  knew  conditions  thoroughly  hesitated  to  report  them 
because  of  the  supposed  exigencies  of  war  and  wartime 
policies,  or,  reporting  them  in  despite  thereof,  saw  them- 
selves denounced  as  pro-German  propagandists. 

Months  later,  when  perhaps  irreparable  damage  had  been 
done,  the  truth  began  to  come  out.  The  following  Associ- 
ated Press  dispatch  is  significant : 

''London,  July  i. — Germany  possessed  a  sound  case  in 
claiming. early  relief,  according  to  reports  of  British  officers 
who  visited  Silesia  in  April  to  ascertain  economic  condi- 
tions prevailing  in  Germany.  A  white  paper  issued  tonight 
gives  the  text  of  their  reports  and  the  result  of  their  in- 
vestigations. 

191 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

"It  is  said  that  there  was  a  genuine  shortage  of  food- 
stuffs and  the  health  of  the  population  had  suffered  so  se- 
riously that  the  working  classes  had  reached  such  a  stage  of 
desperation  that  they  could  not  be  trusted  to  keep  the  peace." 

One  is  told  officially  that  the  old  regime  in  Russia  fell 
"because  as  an  autocracy  it  did  not  respond  to  the  demo- 
cratic demands  of  the  Russian  people."^  This  is  an  ascrip- 
tion to  the  Russian  people  of  elevated  sentiments  to  which 
they  have  not  the  shadow  of  a  claim.  The  old  regime  fell 
because  it  did  not  respond  to  the  demands  of  the  Russian 
people  for  food.  Wilhelm  II  fell  because  the  Germans  were 
hungry.  It  was  hunger  that  handicapped  the  efforts  of  the 
Ebert-Haase  government  throughout  its  existence  and  it 
was  hunger  that  proved  the  best  recruiting  agent  for  Lieb- 
knecht  and  the  other  elements  that  were  trying  to  make 
democracy  impossible  in  Germany.  If  any  people  with  ex- 
perience of  hunger  were  asked  to  choose  between  the  ab- 
solutism of  Peter  the  Great  with  bursting  granaries  and  the 
most  enlightened  democracy  with  empty  bins,  democracy 
would  go  away  with  its  hands  as  empty  as  its  bins. 

"Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread"  is  the  first  material 
petition  in  the  prayer  of  all  the  Christian  peoples  of  the 
world,  but  only  those  who  have  hungered  can  realize  its 
deep  significance. 

The  fact  is  not  generally  known — and  will  doubtless 
cause  surprise — that  a  determined  effort  was  made  by  the 
American,  French  and  British  governments  after  the  armis- 
tice to  make  first-hand  independent  reporting  of  events  in 
Germany  impossible.  Assistant  Secretary  of  State  Polk  fol- 
lowed the  example  of  the  other  governments  named  by  is- 
suing on  November  13th  an  order,  which  was  cabled  to  all 
American  embassies  and  legations  abroad,  prohibiting  any 
American  journalist  from  entering  Germany.  The  State 
Department  refused  to  issue  passports  to  journalists  de- 
siring to  go  to  adjoining  neutral  countries  except  upon  their 
pledge  not  to  enter  Germany  without  permission.  Requests 
for  permission  were  either  denied,  or  (in  some  instances) 
not  even  acknowledged. 

^fVar  Cyclopedia,  issued  by  the  Committee  on  Public  Information,  p.  241. 

192 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

There  were,  however,  some  American  journalists  sta- 
tioned in  lands  adjoining  Germany,  and  a  few  of  these,  al- 
though warned  by  members  of  their  diplomatic  corps,  con- 
ceived it  to  be  their  duty  to  their  papers  and  to  their  people 
as  well,  to  try  to  learn  the  truth  about  the  German  situation, 
instead  of  depending  longer  upon  hearsay  and  neutral  jour- 
nalists. Some  of  the  most  valuable  reports  reaching  Wash- 
ington in  these  early  days  came  from  men  who  had  dis- 
obeyed the  State  Department's  orders,  but  this  did  not  save 
at  least  two  of  the  disobedient  ones  from  suffering  very  real 
punishment  at  the  hands  of  resentful  officials. 

What  the  purpose  of  the  State  Department  was  in  thus 
attempting  to  prevent  any  but  army  officers  or  government 
officials  from  reporting  on  conditions  in  Germany  the  writer 
does  not  know.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  the  initiative 
did  not  come  from  Washington. 


193 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

"The  New  Freedom/' 

THE  conclusion  of  the  armistice  was  the  signal  for  a 
general  collapse  among  Germany's  armed  forces. 
This  did  not  at  first  affect  the  troops  in  the  trenches, 
and  many  of  them  preserved  an  almost  exemplary  spirit  and 
discipline  until  they  reached  home,  but  the  men  of  the  etape 
— the  positions  back  of  the  front  and  at  the  military  bases — 
threw  order  and  discipline  to  the  winds.  It  was  here  that 
revolutionary  propaganda  and  red  doctrines  had  secured  the 
most  adherents  in  the  army,  and  the  effect  was  quickly  seen. 
Abandoning  provisions,  munitions  and  military  stores  gen- 
erally, looting  and  terrifying  the  people  of  their  own  vil- 
lages and  cities,  the  troops  of  the  etape  straggled  back  to 
the  homeland,  where  they  were  welcomed  by  the  elements 
responsible  for  Germany's  collapse. 

The  government  sent  a  telegram  to  the  Supreme  Army 
Command,  pointing  out  the  necessity  of  an  orderly  demo- 
bilization and  emphasizing  the  chaotic  conditions  that  would 
result  if  army  units  arbitrarily  left  their  posts.  Command- 
ing officers  were  directed  to  promulgate  these  orders  : 

"  I.  Relations  between  officers  and  men  must  rest  upon 
mutual  confidence.  The  soldier's  voluntary  submission  to 
his  officer  and  comradely  treatment  of  the  soldier  by  his 
superior  are  conditions  precedent  for  this. 

"2.  Officers  retain  their  power  of  command.  Uncondi- 
tional obedience  when  on  duty  is  of  decisive  importance  if 
the  return  march  to  the  German  homeland  is  to  be  suc- 
cessfully carried  out.  Military  discipline  and  order  in  the 
armies  must  be  maintained  in  all  circumstances. 

"3.  For  the  maintenance  of  confidence  between  officers 

195 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

and  men  the  soldiers'  councils  have  advisory  powers  in  mat- 
ters relating  to  provisioning,  furloughs  and  the  infliction 
of  military  punishments.  It  is  their  highest  duty  to  endeavor 
to  prevent  disorder  and  mutiny. 

"4.  Officers  and  men  shall  have  the  same  rations. 

"5.  Officers  and  men  shall  receive  the  same  extra  allow- 
ances of  pay  and  perquisites." 

"Voluntary  submission"  by  soldiers  to  officers  might  be 
feasible  in  a  victorious  and  patriotic  army,  but  it  is  im- 
practicable among  troops  infected  with  Socialist  doctrines 
and  retreating  before  their  conquerors.  Authority,  once  de- 
stroyed, can  never  be  regained.  This  was  proved  not  only 
at  the  front,  but  at  home  as  well.  Die  nettc  Freiheit  (the  new 
freedom),  a  phrase  glibly  mouthed  by  all  supporters  of  the 
revolution,  assumed  the  same  grotesque  forms  in  Germany 
as  in  Russia.  Automobiles,  commandeered  by  soldiers  from 
army  depots  or  from  the  royal  garages,  flying  red  flags, 
darted  through  the  streets  at  speeds  defying  all  regulations, 
filled  with  unwashed  and  unshaven  occupants  lolling  on  the 
cushioned  seats.  Cabmen  drove  serenely  up  the  left  side 
of  Unter  den  Linden,  twiddling  their  fingers  at  the  few 
personally  escorted  and  disarmed  policemen  whom  they 
saw.  Gambling  games  ran  openly  at  street-corners.  Soldiers 
mounted  improvised  booths  in  the  streets  and  sold  cigarettes 
and  soap  looted  from  army  stores. 

Earnest  revolutionaries  traveled  through  the  city  look- 
ing for  signs  containing  the  word  kaiserlich  (imperial) 
or  koniglich  (royal),  and  mutilated  or  destroyed  them. 
Court  purveyors  took  down  their  signs  or  draped  them.  The 
Kaiser  Keller  in  Friedrichstrasse  became  simply  a  Keller 
and  the  bust  of  the  Kaiser  over  the  door  was  covered  with  a 
piece  of  canvas.  The  Royal  Opera- House  became  the  "Op- 
era-House Unter  den  Linden." 

One  of  the  most  outstanding  characteristics  of  the  German 
people  in  peace  times  had  been  their  love  of  order.  Even  the 
superficial  observer  could  not  help  noticing  it,  and  one  of  its 
manifestations  earned  general  commendation.  This  was  that 
the  unsightly  billboards  and  placarded  walls  that  disfigure 
American  cities  were  never  seen   in   Germany.    Neat  and 

196 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

sightly  columns  were  erected,  in  various  places  for  official, 
theatrical  or  business  announcements,  and  no  posters  might 
be  affixed  anywhere  else.  Nothing  more  strikingly  illustrates 
the  character  of  the  collapse  in  Germany  than  the  fact  that 
it  destroyed  even  this  deeply  ingrained  love  of  order.  Ge- 
nossen  with  brushes  and  paste-pots  calmly  defaced  house- 
walls  and  even  show  windows  on  main  streets  with  placards 
whose  quality  showed  that  German  art,  too,  had  suffered  in 
the  general  collapse  of  the  Empire. 

There  was  something  so  essentially  childish  in  the  man- 
ner in  which  a  great  part  of  the  people  reacted  to  die  neue 
Freiheit  that  one  is  not  surprised  to  hear  that  it  also  turned 
juvenile  heads.  Several  hundred  schoolboys  and  schoolgirls, 
from  twelve  to  seventeen  years  old,  paraded  through  the 
main  streets  of  Berlin,  carrying  red  flags  and  placards  with 
incendiary  inscriptions.  The  procession  stopped  before  the 
Prussian  Diet  building,  where  the  Workmen's  and  Soldiers' 
Council  was  in  session,  and  presented  a  list  of  demands. 
These  included  the  vote  for  all  persons  eighteen  years  old  or 
over,  the  abolition  of  corporal  punishment  and  participation 
by  the  school-children  in  the  administration  of  the  schools. 
The  chairman  of  the  Vollzugsrat  of  the  council  addressed 
the  juvenile  paraders,  and  declared  that  he  was  in  complete 
sympathy  with  their  demands. 

A  seventeen-year-old  lad  replied  with  a  speech  in  which 
he  warned  the  council  that  there  would  be  terrible  conse- 
quences if  the  demands  were  not  granted.  The  procession 
then  went  on  to  the  Reichstag  building,  where  speeches 
were  made  by  several  juvenile  orators,  demanding  the  res- 
ignation or  removal  of  Ebert  and  Scheidemann  and  threat- 
ening a  general  juvenile  strike  if  this  demand  was  not  ac- 
cepted immediately. 

Enthusiasm  was  heightened  in  the  first  week  of  the  revo- 
lutionary government's  existence  by  reports  that  enemy 
countries  were  also  in  the  grip  of  revolution.  Tuesday's 
papers  published  a  report  that  Foch  had  been  murdered, 
Poincare  had  fled  from  Paris  and  the  French  government 
had  been  overthrown.  Reports  came  from  Hamburg  and 
Kiel  that  English  sailors  had  hoisted  the  red  flag  and  were 

197 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

fraternizing  with  German  ships'  crews  on  the  North  Sea. 
7'he  Soldiers*  Council  at  Paderborn  reported  that  the  red 
flag  had  been  hoisted  in  the  French  trenches  from  the  Bel- 
gian border  to  Mons,  and  that  French  soldiers  were  frater- 
nizing with  the  Germans.  That  these  reports  found  con- 
siderable credence  throws  a  certain  light  on  the  German 
psychology  of  these  days.  The  reaction  when  they  were 
found  to  be  false  further  increased  the  former  despondency. 

The  six-man  cabinet  decreed  on  November  15th  the  dis- 
solution of  the  Prussian  Diet  and  the  abolishment  of  the 
House  of  Lords.  Replying  to  a  telegram  from  President 
Fehrenbach  of  the  Reichstag,  asking  whether  the  govern- 
ment intended  to  prevent  the  Reichstag  from  coming  to- 
gether in  the  following  week,  the  cabinet  telegraphed : 

"As  a  consequence  of  the  political  overturn,  which  has 
done  away  with  the  institution  of  German  Kaiserdom  as 
well  as  with  the  Federal  Council  in  its  capacity  of  a  law- 
giving body,  the  Reichstag  which  was  elected  in  191 2  can 
also  not  reconvene." 

The  cabinet — subject  to  the  control  theoretically  exer- 
cisable by  the  Vollzugsrat — was  thus  untrammeled  by  other 
legislative  or  administrative  institutions.  But  it  was,  as  we 
have  seen,  trammeled  from  without  by  the  disastrous  ma- 
terial conditions  in  Germany,  by  the  mental  and  moral  ship- 
wreck of  its  people,  by  the  peculiar  German  psychology  and 
by  the  political  immaturity  of  the  whole  nation — a  political 
immaturity,  moreover,  which  even  certain  cabinet  members 
shared.  From  within  the  cabinet  was  also  seriously  handi- 
capped from  the  start  by  its  "parity"  composition,  that  is  to 
say,  the  fact  that  power  was  equally  divided  between  Ma- 
jority and  Independent  Socialists  without  a  deciding  casting 
vote  in  case  of  disagreement  along  party  lines.  If  the  Inde- 
pendent Socialist  cabinet  members  and  the  rank  and  file  of 
their  party  had  comprehended  the  real  character  and  com- 
pleteness of  the  revolution,  as  it  was  comprehended  by  some 
of  the  theorists  of  the  party — notably  Karl  Kautsky  and 
Eduard  Bernstein — and  if  they  had  avoided  their  disastrous 
fellowship  with  Joffe  and  other  Bolshevik  agents,  the  sub- 
sequent course  of  events  would  have  been  different.  But  they 

198 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

lacked  this  comprehension  and  they  had  been  defiled  in 
handling  the  pitch  of  Bolshevism. 

All  the  revolutions  of  the  last  century  and  a  quarter  had 
been  of  bourgeois  origin.  They  had,  however,  been  carried 
into  effect  with  the  aid  of  the  proletariat,  since  the  bour- 
geoisie, being  numerically  much  weaker  than  the  proletariat, 
does  not  command  the  actual  brute  force  to  make  revolution. 
At  first  the  bourgeoisie,  as  planners  of  the  overthrow,  took 
control  of  the  authority  of  the  state  and  exercised  it  for 
their  own  ends.  The  proletariat,  which  had  learned  its  own 
strength  and  resources  in  the  revolutionary  contests,  used 
its  power  to  compel  a  further  development  of  the  revolu- 
tion in  a  more  radical  direction  and  eventually  compelled 
the  first  holders  of  authority  to  give  way  to  a  government 
more  responsive  to  the  demands  of  the  lower  classes.  Thus 
the  events  of  1 789  in  Paris  were  followed  by  the  victory  of 
the  Montane  party,  the  events  of  September  4,  1870,  by 
those  of  March  18,  1871,  and  the  Kerensky  revolution  in 
Petrograd  by  the  Bolshevik  revolution  of  November,  191 7. 

The  German  revolution,  however,  alone  among  the  great 
revolutions  of  the  world,  was,  as  has  already  been  pointed 
out,  both  in  its  origins  and  execution,  proletarian  and  So- 
cialistic. The  bourgeoisie  had  no  part  in  it  and  no  participa- 
tion in  the  revolutionary  government.  Any  attempt  to  de- 
velop the  revolution  ^further  by  overthrowing  or  opposing 
the  first  revolutionary  government  could  therefore  serve 
only  factional  and  not  class  interests.  Factional  clashes  were, 
of  course,  inevitable.  The  members  of  the  Paris  Commune 
split  into  four  distinct  factions,  Jacobins,  Blanquists,  Proud- 
honists  and  a  small  group  of  Marxist  Internationalists.  But 
these,  bitterly  as  they  attacked  each  other's  methods  and 
views,  nevertheless  presented  at  all  times  a  united  front 
against  the  bourgeoisie,  whereas  the  German  Independent 
Socialists,  from  whom  better  things  might  have  been  ex- 
pected, almost  from  the  beginning  played  into  the  hands  of 
the  Spartacans,  from  whom  nothing  good  could  have  been 
expected,  and  thus  seriously  weakened  the  government  and 
eventually  made  a  violent  second  phase  of  the  revolution 
unavoidable. 

199 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

If  it  be  admitted  that  Socialist  government  was  the  proper 
form  of  government  for  Germany  at  this  time,  it  is  clear  that 
the  Independent  Socialists  had  a  very  real  mission.  This 
was  well  expressed  in  the  first  month  of  the  revolution  in  a 
pamphlet  by  Kautsky,  in  which  he  wrote : 

"The  extremes  (Majority  Socialists  and  Spartacans)  can 
best  be  described  thus:  the  one  side  (Majority)  has  not  yet 
completely  freed  itself  from  bourgeois  habits  of  thought 
and  still  has  much  confidence  in  the  bourgeois  world,  whose 
inner  strength  it  overestimates.  The  other  side  (Spartacans) 
totally  lacks  all  comprehension  of  the  bourgeois  world  and 
regards  it  as  a  collection  of  scoundrels.  It  despises  the  mental 
and  economic  accomplishments  of  the  bourgeoisie  and  be- 
lieves that  the  proletarians,  without  any  special  knowledge 
or  any  kind  of  training,  are  able  to  take  over  immediately 
all  political  and  economic  functions  formerly  exercised  by 
the  bourgeois  authorities. 

"Between  these  two  extremes  we  find  those  (the  Inde- 
pendents) who  have  studied  the  bourgeois  world  and  com- 
prehend it,  who  regard  it  objectively  and  critically,  but  who 
know  how  properly  to  value  its  accomplishments  and  realize 
the  difficulties  of  replacing  it  with  a  better  system.  This 
Marxist  center  must,  on  the  one  hand,  spur  the  timorous  on 
and  awaken  the  blindly  confiding,  and  on  the  other,  put  a 
check  upon  the  blind  impetuosity  of  the  ignorant  and 
thoughtless.  It  has  the  double  task  of  driving  and  applying 
the  brakes. 

"These  are  the  three  tendencies  that  contend  with  each 
other  within  the  ranks  of  the  proletariat." 

Indications  of  the  coming  split  with  the  cabinet  were  ob- 
servable even  in  the  first  week  of  the  government's  existence. 
Together  with  its  decree  dissolving  the  Diet,  the  cabinet 
announced  that  "the  national  government  is  engaged  in 
making  preparations  for  the  summoning  of  a  constituent 
assembly  at  the  earliest  possible  moment."  The  overwhelm- 
ing majority  of  the  German  people  already  demanded  the 
convening  of  such  a  body.  Only  the  Spartacans,  who  had 
formally  effected  organization  on  November  14th,  openly 
opposed  it  as  a  party,  but  there  was  much  anti -assembly 

200 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

sentiment  in  Independent  Socialist  ranks,  although  the  party 
had  as  yet  taken  no  stand  against  it.  Richard  Miiller,  the 
dangerous  Independent  Socialist  demagogue  at  the  head  of 
the  workmen's  section  of  the  Vollzugsrat,  was  one  of  the 
most  rabid  opponents  of  a  national  assembly  and  one  of  the 
men  responsible  for  his  party's  subsequent  opposition  to  it. 
Speaking  at  a  meeting  of  the  Vollzugsrat  on  November  19th 
he  said : 

~  "There  is  a  cry  now  for  a  national  assembly.  The  purpose 
is  plain.  The  plan  is  to  use  this  assembly  to  rob  the  prole- 
tariat of  its  power  and  lay  it  back  in  the  hands  of  the  bour- 
geoisie. But  it  will  not  succeed.  We  want  no  democratic  re- 
public. We  want  a  social  republic." 

Haase,  speaking  for  the  cabinet,  cleverly  avoided  putting 
himself  on  record  as  to  whether  or  not  a  national  assembly 
would  eventually  be  called.  It  could  not  be  called  together 
yet,  he  said,  because  preparations  must  first  be  made.  Elec- 
tion lists  must  be  drawn  up  and  the  soldiers  in  the  field  must 
have  an  opportunity  to  vote.  Moreover,  the  soldiers,  who  had 
been  "mentally  befogged"  by  the  pan- German  propaganda 
at  the  front,  must  be  "enlightened"  before  they  could  be 
permitted  to  vote.  Large  industries  must  also  be  socialized 
before  time  could  be  taken  to  summon  a  constituante. 

It  soon  became  apparent  that  the  work  in  the  cabinet  was 
not  going  smoothly.  Ebert,  Scheidemann  and  Landsberg, 
Socialists  though  they  were,  lacked  any  trace  of  that  fanati- 
cism which  marks  so  many  Socialist  leaders.  They  were 
sobered  by  their  new  responsibilities.  Looked  at  from  above, 
administrative  problems  presented  a  different  picture  from 
tliat  which  they  had  when  viewed  from  below  by  men  whose 
chief  role  had  been  one  of  opposition  and  criticism.  Sweep- 
ing socialization  of  all  industries,  regulation  of  wages  and 
hours  of  work,  the  protection  of  society  against  criminals, 
the  raising  of  revenue,  the  abolishing  of  capitalism  and 
capitalists — these  things  were  less  simple  than  they  had 
seemed.  To  socialize  the  administration  of  the  state  was  not 
difficult,  for  that  was  a  mechanism  which  had  been  built 
up.  But  society,  as  these  novices  in  government  now  compre- 
hended more  clearly  than  before,  is  an  organism  which  has 

201 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

grown  up.  The  product  of  centuries  of  growth  cannot  be 
recklessly  made  over  in  a  few  weeks. 

The  Majority  Socialist  trio,  realizing  the  impracticability 
of  tearing  down  old  institutions  before  there  was  something 
better  to  take  their  place,  moved  slowly  in  instituting  re- 
forms. This  was  little  to  the  liking  of  the  radicals  within  and 
without  the  cabinet.  Haase,  politician  before  all  else,  and 
Dittmann,  class-conscious  fanatic,  insisted  on  speedier  re- 
forms along  orthodox  Socialist  lines,  and  particularly  on  a 
far-reaching  socialization  of  big  industries.  Nearly  a  year 
earlier  Haase,  Cohn  and  Ledebour,  attending  the  notorious 
Joffe  banquet,  had  approved  Bolshevik  attacks  on  the  Ma- 
jority Socialists  and  excused  the  slow  progress  of  the  revo- 
lutionary propaganda  by  saying  that  "those — Eberts  and 
Scheidemanns"  could  not  be  brought  to  see  reason.  It  was 
hardly  to  be  expected  that  the  Independents  would  be  mild- 
er now.  The  work  of  the  cabinet  was  hampered  already, 
although  the  Independent  members  kept  up  a  pretense  of 
working  with  the  old  party's  representatives. 

Haase,  Dittmann  and  Barth  were  supported  by  the  Voll- 
zugsrat.  This  body,  which  had  started  out  by  ordering  the 
restoration  to  their  owners  of  the  newspapers  seized  during 
the  revolution,  had  so  far  faced  about  two  days  later  that 
Liebknecht  and  Rosa  Luxemburg  were  able  to  exhibit  to  the 
publishers  of  the  Lokal-Anzeiger  an  order  from  the  Voll- 
zugsrat  directing  them  to  place  their  plant  at  the  disposal 
of  the  Spartacans  for  the  printing  of  Die  rote  Fahne,  whose 
editor  the  Luxemburg  woman  was  to  be.  The  order  did  not 
even  hint  at  any  compensation  for  the  publishers.  Naturally 
they  refused  flatly  to  obey  it,  and  the  Greater  Berlin  Sol- 
diers' Council,  still  dominated  by  men  of  the  better  sort, 
meeting  two  days  later,  indignantly  denounced  the  action 
of  the  Vollzugsrat  and  compelled  the  withdrawal  of  the 
order. 

Despite  the  fact  that  the  Majority  and  Independent  So- 
cialists were  evenly  represented  on  this  council,  the  latter 
dominated  it.  Brutus  Molkenbuhr,  the  Majority  Socialist 
co-chairman  with  Richard  Muller  was  no  match  for  his 
fanatic  colleague,   and  most  of  the   other  members  were 

202 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

nobodies  of  at  most  not  more  than  average  intelligence.  A 
more  poorly  equipped  body  of  men  never  ruled  any  great 
state,  and  whatever  of  good  was  accomplished  by  the  cabinet 
in  the  first  month  of  its  existence  was  accomplished  against 
the  opposition  of  a  majority  of  these  men.  Miiller's  radical- 
ism grew  daily  greater.  ''The  way  to  a  national  assembly 
must  lead  over  my  dead  body"  he  declared  in  a  speech  filled 
with  braggadocio,  and  his  hearers  applauded. 

The  Soldiers'  Council  noted  with  increasing  displeasure 
the  drift  of  the  Vollzugsrat  toward  the  left.  At  the  end  of 
November,  after  a  stormy  session,  the  council  adopted  a 
resolution  expressing  dissatisfaction  with  the  attitude  of  the 
Vollzugsrat  and  appointing  one  representative  from  each 
of  the  seven  regiments  stationed  in  Berlin  to  weigh  charges 
against  the  executive  council  and,  if  necessary,  to  reform  it. 
The  resolution  charged  the  Vollzugsrat  with  holding  secret 
sessions,  usurping  powers,  grafting,  nepotism,-'^  failure  to 
take  steps  to  protect  the  country's  eastern  border  against  the 
aggressions  of  the  Poles  and  hindering  all  practical  work. 

The  Independent  Socialists'  ascendancy  in  the  executive 
body  was  assured  on  December  5th,  when  an  election  was 

^A  long  chapter  could  be  written  upon  this  subject  alone.  The  trail  of  Ger- 
man revolutionary  governments  (but  not  the  national  cabinet)  is  slimy  with 
graft,  robbery  and  nepotism.  Eichhorn,  in  the  two  months  that  he  held  the 
office  of  Berlin's  Police  President,  made  not  a  single  one  of  the  daily  reports 
required  of  him  and  never  accounted  for  moneys  passing  through  his  hands. 
Himself  drawing  salary  from  Rosta  and  also  as  police-president,  he  ap- 
pointed his  wife  to  a  highly  paid  clerkship  and  his  young  daughter  drew  a 
salary  for  receiving  visitors.  An  Independent  Socialist  minister's  wife  drew 
a  large  salary  for  no  services.  The  Vollzugsrat  employed  a  hundred  stenog- 
raphers and  messengers  who  had  nothing  to  do  except  draw  their  salaries. 
The  53er  Ausschuss,  a  committee  of  marines  and  soldiers  which  took  entire 
charge  of  the  admiralty  and  conducted  its  affairs  without  any  regard  to  the 
national  government,  voted  itself  sums  larger  than  had  been  required  to  pay 
all  the  salaries  of  the  whole  department  in  other  days.  The  police  captain  of  a 
Berlin  suburb,  a  youthful  mechanic,  received  ninety  marks  a  day,  his  wife 
was  made  a  clerk  at  fifty  marks,  and  he  demanded  and  received  an  automobile 
for  his  private  use.  The  first  revolutionary  military  commandant  of  Munich 
tried  to  defraud  a  bank  of  44,000  marks  on  worthless  paper.  The  Vollzugsrat 
never  made  an  honest  accounting  for  the  tremendous  sums  used  by  it.  Hun- 
dreds of  soldiers'  and  workmen's  committees  constituted  themselves  into 
Soviets  in  tiny  villages  and  paid  themselves  daily  salaries  equaling  the  high- 
est weekly  pay  that  any  of  them  had  ever  earned.  Robbery  through  official 
requisition  became  so  common  that  the  people  had  to  be  warned  against 
honoring  any  requisitions. 

203 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

held  to  fill  two  vacancies  among  the  soldier  members.  Two 
Independents  were  chosen,  which  gave  that  party  sixteen 
of  the  council's  twenty-eight  members. 

Even  by  this  time  the  shift  of  sentiment  in  the  ranks  of 
Independent  Socialism  had  proceeded  to  a  point  where  this 
party's  continued  ascendancy  would  have  been  as  great  a 
nienace  to  democratic  government  as  would  Liebknecht's 
Spartacans.  Adolph  Hoffmann,  the  party's  Prussian  Minis- 
ter of  Cults,  openly  declared  that  if  an  attempt  were  made  to 
summon  the  national  assembly  it  must  never  be  permitted 
to  meet,  even  if  it  had  to  be  dispersed  as  the  Russian  Bol- 
sheviki  dispersed  the  constituent  assembly  in  Petrograd,  and 
his  pronouncement  was  hailed  with  delight  by  Die  Freiheit, 
the  party's  official  organ  in  Berlin,  and  by  Independents 
generally.  Emil  Eichhorn,  who  was  once  one  of  the  editors 
of  Vorwdrts  but  now  prominent  in  the  Independent  Social- 
ist party,  and  who  had  been  appointed  police-president  of 
Berlin,  was  on  the  payroll  of  Rosta,  the  Russian  telegraph 
agency  which  served  as  a  central  for  the  carrying  on  of 
Bolshevik  propaganda  in  Germany.  He  did  as  much  as  any 
other  man  to  make  the  subsequent  fighting  and  bloodshed  in 
Berlin  possible  by  handing  out  arms  and  ammunition  to 
Liebknecht's  followers,  and  by  dismissing  from  the  city's 
Republican  Guard — the  soldier-policemen  appointed  to  as- 
sist and  control  the  policemen — men  loyal  to  the  new  gov- 
ernment. 

The  Spartacans  were  feverishly  active.  Liebknecht  and 
his  lieutenants  organized  and  campaigned  tirelessly.  Der 
rote  Soldatenbund  (the  Red  Soldiers'  League)  was  formed 
from  deserters  and  criminals  and  armed  with  weapons  fur- 
nished by  Eichhorn  from  the  police  depots,  stolen  from  gov- 
ernment stores  or  bought  with  money  furnished  by  Russian 
agents.  The  funds  received  from  this  source  were  sufficient 
also  to  enable  the  Spartacan  leaders  to  pay  their  armed 
supporters  twenty  marks  a  day,  a  sum  which  proved  a  great 
temptation  to  many  of  the  city's  unemployed  whose  suffer- 
ings had  overcome  their  scruples. 

The  first  demonstration  of  strength  by  the  Spartacans 
came  on   November  26th,   when  they   forcibly  seized  the 

204 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

Piechatzek  Crane  Works  and  the  Imperator  Motor  Com- 
pany, both  big  Berlin  plants.  Spartacan  employees  assisted 
Liebknecht's  red  soldiery  to  throw  the  management  out.  The 
funds  and  books  of  both  plants  were  seized,  soldiers  re- 
mained in  charge  and  plans  were  made  to  run  the  plants 
for  the  sole  benefit  of  the  workers.  The  cabinet  ordered  the 
plants  restored  to  their  owners,  and  the  order  was  obeyed 
after  it  became  apparent  that  the  Vollzugsrat,  although  in 
sympathy  with  the  usurpers,  did  not  dare  oppose  the  cabinet 
on  such  an  issue. 

The  openly  revolutionary  attitude  of  the  Liebknecht  co- 
horts and  their  insolent  defiance  of  the  government,  resulted 
in  armed  guards  being  stationed  in  front  of  all  public  build- 
ings in  Berlin.  But  here  was  again  exhibited  that  peculiar 
unpractical  kink  in  the  Socialist  mentality :  the  guards  were 
directed  not  to  shoot! 

The  reason  for  the  existence  of  this  kink  will  be  apparent 
to  one  who  has  read  carefully  the  preceding  chapters  re- 
garding Socialism's  origin  and  the  passages  therein  report- 
ing the  attitude  of  the  two  wings  of  the  party  in  the  Reichs- 
tag following  Admiral  von  Capelle's  charges  in  the  autumn 
of  191 7.  The  first  article  in  the  Socialist  creed  is  solidarity. 
"Proletarians  of  all  lands:  Unite!"  cried  Marx  and  Engels 
in  their  Communist  Manifesto  seven  decades  ago.  The 
average  Socialist  brings  to  his  party  an  almost  religious 
faith ;  for  hundreds  of  thousands  Socialism  is  their  only  re- 
ligion. All  members  of  the  party  are  their  "comrades,"  the 
sheep  of  one  fold,  and  their  common  enemies  are  the  bour- 
geois elements  of  society,  the  wolves.  Black  sheep  there  may 
be  in  the  fold,  but  they  are,  after  all,  sheep,  and  like  must  not 
slaughter  like,  Genossen  must  not  shoot  Genossen. 

The  supporters  of  the  government  were  to  learn  later  by 
bitter  experience  that  some  sheep  are  worse  than  wolves, 
but  they  had  not  yet  learned  it.  Spartacans  coolly  disarmed 
the  four  guards  placed  at  the  old  palace  in  Unter  den  Linden 
and  stole  their  guns.  They  disarmed  the  guards  at  the 
Chancellor's  Palace,  the  seat  of  the  government,  picked  the 
pockets  and  stole  the  lunch  of  the  man  in  charge  of  the 
machine-gun  there,  and  took  the  machine-gun  away  in  their 

205 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

automobile.  They  staged  a  demonstration  against  Otto  Wels, 
a  Majority  Socialist  who  had  been  appointed  city  comman- 
dant, and  had  no  difficulty  in  invading  his  private  quarters 
because  the  guards  posted  in  front  had  orders  not  to  shoot 
and  were  simply  brushed  aside.  When  the  demonstration 
was  ended,  the  Spartacans  proceeded  on  their  way  rejoic- 
ing, taking  with  them  the  arms  of  the  government  soldiers. 

The  Spartacans  were  by  this  time  well  equipped  with 
rifles,  revolvers  and  ammunition,  and  had  a  large  number 
of  machine-guns.  They  secured  one  auto-truck  full  of  these 
from  the  government  arsenal  at  Spandau  on  a  forged  order. 
They  even  had  a  few  light  field  guns  and  two  or  three  mine- 
throwers. In  the  absence  of  any  opposition  except  the  futile 
denunciations  of  the  bourgeois  press  and  the  Vorwdrts,  their 
numbers  were  increasing  daily  and  they  were  rapidly  forti- 
fying themselves  in  various  points  of  vantage.  Neukolln, 
one  of  the  cities  making  up  Greater  Berlin,  was  already 
completely  in  their  power.  The  Workmen's  and  Soldiers' 
Council  of  this  city  consisted  of  seventy-eight  men,  all  of 
whom  were  Spartacans.  This  council  forcibly  dissolved  the 
old  city  council,  drove  the  mayor  from  the  city  hall  and  con- 
stituted itself  the  sole  legislative  and  administrative  organ 
in  the  city.  A  decree  was  issued  imposing  special  taxes 
upon  all  non-Socialist  residents,  and  merchants  were  de- 
spoiled by  requisitions  enforced  by  armed  hooligans. 

The  "Council  of  Deserters,  Stragglers  and  Furloughed 
Soldiers"  announced  a  number  of  meetings  for  the  after- 
noon of  December  6th  to  enforce  a  demand  for  participa- 
tion in  the  government.  The  largest  of  these  meetings  was 
held  in  the  Germania  Hall  in  the  Chausseestrasse,  just  above 
Invalidenstrasse  and  near  the  barracks  of  the  Franzer,  as 
the  Kaiser  Franz  Regiment  was  popularly  known.  The  main 
speaker  was  a  man  introduced  as  "Comrade  Schultz,"  but 
whose  Hebraic  features  indicated  that  this  was  a  revolu- 
tionary pseudonym.  He  had  hardly  finished  outlining  the 
demands  of  "us  deserters"  when  word  came  that  the  Voll- 
zugsrat  had  been  arrested.  It  developed  later  that  some  mis- 
guided patriots  of  the  old  school  had  actually  made  an  at- 
tempt to  arrest  the  members  of  this  council,  which  had  de- 

206 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

veloped  into  such  a  hindrance  to  honest  government,  but 
the  attempt  failed. 

The  report,  however,  threw  the  meeting  into  great  ex- 
citement. A  motion  to  adjourn  and  march  to  the  Chancel- 
lor's Palace  to  protest  against  the  supposed  arrest  was  car- 
ried and  the  crowd  started  marching  down  Chausseestrasse, 
singing  the  laborers'  Marseillaise.  At  the  same  time  the 
crowd  present  at  a  similar  meeting  in  a  hall  a  few  blocks 
away  started  marching  up  Chausseestrasse  to  join  the  Ger- 
mania  Hall  demonstrants.  Both  processions  found  their  way- 
blocked  by  a  company  of  Franzer,  drawn  up  in  front  of  their 
barracks,  standing  at  "ready"  and  with  bayonets  fixed.  The 
officer  in  command  ordered  the  paraders  to  stop : 

"Come  on  !"  cried  the  leaders  of  the  demonstration.  "They 
won't  shoot  their  comrades !" 

But  the  Franzer  had  not  yet  been  "enlightened."  A  rat- 
tling volley  rang  out  and  the  deserters,  stragglers  and  fur- 
loughed  paraders  fled.  Fifteen  of  them  lay  dead  in  the  street 
and  one  young  woman  aboard  a  passing  street  car  was  also 
killed. 

The  incident  aroused  deep  indignation  not  only  among 
the  Spartacans,  but  among  the  Independent  Socialists  as 
well.  The  bulk  of  the  Independents  were  naturally  excited 
over  the  killing  of  "comrades,"  and  the  leaders  saw  in  it  a 
welcome  opportunity  further  to  shake  the  authority  of  the 
Majority  Socialist  members  of  the  government.  Even  the 
Vorwdrts,  hesitating  between  love  and  duty,  apologetically 
demanded  an  investigation.  The  government  eventually 
shook  off  all  responsibility  and  it  was  placed  on  the  shoul- 
ders of  an  over-zealous  officer  acting  without  instructions. 
This  may  have  been — indeed,  probably  was — the  case.  The 
cabinet's  record  up  to  this  time  makes  it  highly  improbable 
that  any  of  its  members  had  yet  begun  to  understand  that 
there  are  limits  beyond  which  no  government  can  with  im- 
punity permit  its  authority  to  be  flouted. 

The  day  following  the  shooting  saw  the  first  of  those 
demonstrations  that  later  became  so  common.  Liebknecht 
summoned  a  meeting  in  the  Siegesallee  in  the  Tiergarten. 
Surrounded  by  motor-trucks  carrying  machine-guns  manned 

207 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

by  surly  ruffians,  he  addressed  the  assembled  thousands, 
attacking  the  government,  demanding  its  forcible  over- 
throw and  summoning  his  hearers  to  organize  a  Red  Guard. 
It  is  significant  that,  although  actual  adherents  of  Spar- 
tacus  in  Berlin  could  at  this  time  be  numbered  in  thousands, 
tens  of  thousands  attended  the  meeting.  Between  the  Spar- 
tacans  and  thousands  of  Independent  Socialists  of  the  rank 
and  file  there  were  already  only  tenuous  dividing  lines. 


208 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  Majority  Socialists  in  Control. 

THE  Independent  Socialist  trio  in  the  cabinet  had 
been  compelled  to  give  up — at  least  outwardly — 
their  opposition  to  the  summoning  of  a  national  as- 
sembly. Popular  sentiment  too  plainly  demanded  such  a 
congress  to  make  it  possible  to  resist  the  demand.  Also  the 
Majority  members  of  the  cabinet  had  been  strengthened  by 
two  occurrences  early  in  December.  Joffe,  the  former  Russian 
Bolshevik  ambassador,  had  published  his  charges  against 
Haase,  Barth  and  Cohn,  and,  although  these  were  merely  a 
confirmation  of  what  was  generally  suspected  or  even  defi- 
nitely known  by  many,  they  had  an  ugly  look  in  the  black 
and  white  of  a  printed  page  and  found  a  temporary  reaction 
which  visibly  shook  the  authority  of  these  men  who  had  ac- 
cepted foreign  funds  to  overthrow  their  government. 

The  other  factor  strengthening  the  hands  of  Ebert, 
Scheidemann  and  Landsberg  was  the  manner  of  the  re- 
turn of  the  German  front-soldiers. 

Gratifying  reports  had  come  of  the  conduct  of  these  men 
on  their  homeward  march.  Where  the  soldiers  of  the  etape 
had  thrown  discipline  and  honor  to  the  winds  and  straggled 
home,  a  chaotic  collection  of  looters,  the  men  who,  until 
noon  on  November  nth,  had  kept  up  the  unequal  struggle 
against  victorious  armies,  brought  back  with  them  some  of 
the  spirit  that  kept  them  at  their  hopeless  posts.  They 
marched  in  good  order,  singing  the  old  songs,  and  scores  of 
reports  came  of  rough  treatment  meted  out  by  them  to  mis- 
guided Genossen  who  tried  to  compel  them  to  substitute  the 
red  flag  for  their  national  or  state  flags,  or  for  their  regi- 
mental banners. 

•209 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

The  first  returning  soldiers  poured  through  the  Brand- 
enburger  Tor  on  December  loth.  A  victorious  army  could 
not  have  comported  itself  differently.  The  imperial  black- 
white-red,  the  black-and-white  of  Prussia,  the  white-and- 
blue  of  Bavaria  and  the  flags  of  other  states  floated  from  the 
ranks  of  the  veterans.  Flowers  decked  their  helmets.  Flow- 
ers and  evergreens  covered  gun-carriages  and  caissons,  flow- 
ers peeped  from  the  muzzles  of  the  rifles.  Women,  children 
and  old  men  trudged  alongside,  cheering,  laughing,  weep- 
ing. Time  was  for  the  moment  rolled  back.  It  was  not  De- 
cember, 1 91 8,  but  August,  1 9 14. 

The  people  greeted  the  troops  as  if  they  were  a  conquer- 
ing army.  They  jammed  the  broad  Unter  den  Linden  ;  cheer- 
ing and  handclapping  were  almost  continuous.  The  red 
flags  had  disappeared  from  the  buildings  along  the  street 
and  been  replaced  by  the  imperial  or  Prussian  colors.  Only 
the  Kultusministerium,  presided  over  by  Adolph  Hoffmann, 
illiterate  director  of  schools  and  atheistic  master  of  churches, 
stayed  red.  The  flag  of  revolution  floated  over  it  and  a 
huge  red  carpet  hung  challengingly  from  a  second-story 
window. 

It  was  evident  on  this  first  day,  as  also  on  the  following 
days,  that  red  doctrines  had  not  yet  destroyed  discipline 
and  order.  The  men  marched  with  the  cadenced  step  of 
veterans,  their  ranks  were  correctly  aligned,  their  rifles 
snapped  from  hand  to  shoulder  at  the  command  of  their 
officers.  The  bands  blared  national  songs  as  the  long  lines 
of  field-gray  troops  defiled  through  the  central  arch  of  the 
great  gate,  once  sacredly  reserved  for  the  royal  family. 

A  hush  fell  on  the  waiting  crowds.  The  soldiers'  helmets 
came  off.  A  massed  band   played   softly   and   a   chorus  of 
school-children  sang  the  old  German  anthem : 
Wie  sie  so  sanft  ruh'n, 
'  A  lie  die  Seligetij 

In  ihren  Grdbern. 

Ebert  delivered  the  address  of  welcome,  which  was  fol- 
lowed by  three  cheers  for  "the  German  Republic."  It  was  no 
time  for  cheers  for  the  "German  Socialist  Republic."  The 
soldiers  had  not  yet  been  "enlightened." 

210 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

The  scenes  of  this  first  day  were  repeated  on  each  day  of 
the  week.  The  self-respecting,  sound  attitude  of  the  front- 
soldiers  angered  the  Spartacans  and  Independents,  but  was 
hailed  with  delight  by  the  great  majority  of  the  people.  The 
Vollzugsrat,  resenting  the  fact  that  it  had  not  been  asked,  as 
the  real  governing  body  of  Germany,  to  take  part  officially 
in  welcoming  the  soldiers,  sent  one  of  its  members  to  de- 
liver an  address  of  welcome.  He  had  hardly  started  when 
bands  began  to  play,  officers  shouted  out  commands,  the 
men's  rifles  sprang  to  their  shoulders  and  they  marched 
away,  leaving  him  talking  to  an  empty  square. 

The  six-man  cabinet  announced  that  a  national  assembly 
would  be  convened.  The  date  tentatively  fixed  for  the  elec- 
tions was  February  2d,  which  was  a  compromise,  for  the 
Majority  Socialists  wanted  an  earlier  date,  while  the  In- 
dependent trio  desired  April.  It  was  announced  also  that  a 
central  congress  of  all  Germany's  workmen's  and  soldiers' 
councils  had  been  summoned  to  meet  in  Berlin  on  Decem- 
ber 1 6th.  This  congress  was  to  have  power  to  fix  the  date  for 
the  national  assembly  and  to  make  the  necessary  prepa- 
rations. 

No  definite  rules  were  laid  down  covering  the  manner  of 
choosing  delegates  to  the  congress.  Despite  the  consequent 
possibility  that  the  elections  of  delegates  would  be  manipu- 
lated by  the  less  scrupulous  Spartacans  and  Independents, 
the  congress  chosen  was  a  remarkably  representative  body. 
The  numerical  weakness  of  the  two  radical  wings  of  So- 
cialism found  striking  illustration  in  the  makeup  of  the  con- 
gress. Of  its  total  membership  of  some  four  hundred  and 
fifty,  the  Spartacans  and  Independents  together  had  only 
about  forty  delegates.  That  this  accurately  represented  the 
proportionate  strengths  of  the  conservative  and  the  radical 
camps  was  proved  at  the  elections  for  the  national  assembly 
a  month  later,  when  the  Independents,  with  four  per  cent 
of  the  total  popular  vote,  again  had  one-eleventh  of  the  Ma- 
jority Socialists'  forty-four  per  cent.  In  considering  the  role 
played  by  the  radicals  in  the  second  phase  of  the  revolution 
it  must  be  remembered  that  the  majority  of  their  strength  lay 
in  Berlin,  where  they  eventually  won  a  greater  following 

211 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

than  that  of  the  old  party.  If  Berlin  and  the  free  cities  of 
Hamburg  and  Bremen  could  have  been  isolated  from  the 
empire  and  allowed  to  go  their  own  way,  ordered  govern- 
ment in  Germany  would  have  come  months  sooner.^ 

The  following  account  of  the  sessions  of  the  central  con- 
gress is  copied  from  the  author's  diary  of  those  days.  There 
is  nothing  to  add  to  or  take  from  the  estimates  and  com- 
ments set  down  at  that  time. 

"December  i6th.  The  Central  Congress  of  Germany's 
Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Councils  convened  today  in  the 
Abgeordnetenhaus  (Prussian  Diet).  There  are  about  four 
hundred  and  fifty  delegates  present,  including  two  women. 
There  is  a  fair  sprinkling  of  intelligent  faces  in  the  crowd, 
and  the  average  of  intelligence  and  manners  is  far  above  that 
of  the  Berlin  Soldiers'  Council.  None  of  the  delegates  keeps 
his  hat  on  in  the  chamber  and  a  few  who  have  started  smok- 
ing throw  their  cigars  and  cigarettes  away  at  the  request  of 
the  presiding  officer,  Leinert  from  Hanover,  who  was  for 
some  years  a  member  of  the  Prussian  Diet  and  is  a  man  of 
ability  and  some  parliamentary  training. 

"After  organization,  which  is  effected  with  a  show  of 
parliamentary  form,  Richard  Miiller,  chairman  of  the  exec- 
utive committee  of  the  Vollzugsrat,  mounts  the  speaker's 
tribune  to  give  an  extended  report  of  the  committee's  ac- 
tivities. The  report,  which  turns  out  to  be  really  a  defense  of 
the  committee,  gets  a  cool  reception.  The  Vollzugsrat  has 
drifted  steadily  to  the  left  ever  since  it  was  appointed,  and 
is  strongly  Independent  Socialist  and  Spartacan,  and  it  is 
already  evident  that  the  Majority  Socialists  have  an  over- 
whelming majority  in  the  Congress. 

"Chairman   Leinert  interrupts   Miiller's  speech  with   an 

*It  is  not  merely  in  very  recent  times  that  the  largest  cities  have  become  the 
strongholds  of  radicalism.  In  a  session  of  the  Prussian  Diet  on  March  20, 
1852,  a  deputy  charged  the  government  with  lack  of  confidence  in  the  people. 
Bismarck  replied :  *'  The  deputy  having  declared  here  that  the  government 
distrusts  thf  people,  I  can  say  to  him  that  it  is  true  that  I  distrust  the  in- 
habitants of  the  larger  cities  so  long  as  they  let  themselves  be  led  by  self- 
seeking  and  lying  demagogues,  but  that  I  do  not  find  the  real  people  there. 
If  the  larger  cities  rise  up  again  in  rebellion,  the  real  people  will  have  ways 
of  bringing  them  to  obedience,  even  if  these  must  include  wiping  them  off  the 
face  of  the  earth." 

212 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

announcement  that  a  Genosse  has  an  important  communi- 
cation to  make.  A  man  who  declares  that  he  speaks  'in  the 
name  of  at  least  250,000  of  Berlin's  proletariat,  now  as- 
sembled before  this  building,'  reads  a  serips  of  demands. 
The  first,  calling  for  the  strengthening  of  the  socialist  re- 
public, is  greeted  with  general  applause,  but  then  come  the 
familiar  Spartacan  (Bolshevik)  demands  for  the  disarm- 
ing of  the  bourgeoisie,  weaponing  of  'the  revolutionary 
proletariat,'  formation  of  a  Red  Guard  (loud  cries  of 
'No!'),  and  'all  power  to  remain  in  the  hands  of  the  work- 
men's and  soldiers'  councils.'  In  other  words,  the  Russian 
Soviet  republic. 

"A  half  dozen  officer-delegates  present  join  in  the  pro- 
tests against  the  demands.  Loud  cries  of  'raus  die  Ojfiziere!' 
(out  with  the  officers!)  come  from  a  little  group  of  Spar- 
tacans  and  Independent  Socialists  at  the  right  of  the  room. 
Order  is  finally  restored  and  Miiller  completes  his  defense 
of  the  Vollzugsrat. 

"A  delegate  moves  that  'Comrades  Liebknecht  and  Rosa 
Luxemburg  be  invited  to  attend  the  session  as  guests  with 
advisory  powers,  in  view  of  their  great  services  to  the  revo- 
lution.'^ The  motion  is  voted  down,  five  to  one.  It  is  re- 
newed in  the  afternoon,  but  meets  the  same  fate,  after  a 
turbulent  scene  in  which  the  Spartacans  and  their  Indepen- 
dent Socialist  allies  howl  and  shout  insults  at  the  top  of 
their  voices. 

"Liebknecht,  who  has  entered  the  building  while  this 
was  going  on,  addresses  his  followers  in  the  street  in  front 
from  the  ledge  of  a  third-story  window.  The  '250,000  of 
Berlin's  proletariat'  prove  to  be  about  seven  thousand,  nearly 
half  of  them  women  and  girls  and  a  great  majority  of  the 
rest  down-at-the-heels  youths.  His  speech  is  the  usual  Bol- 
shevik rodomontade.  A  middle-aged  workman  who  leaves 
the  crowd  with  me  tells  me : 

"  'Two-thirds  of  the  people  there  are  there  because  they 
have  to  come  or  lose  their  jobs.  One  has  to  eat,  you  know.' 

"I  learned  later  in  the  day  that  many  of  the  paraders  had 

^Neither  Liebknecht  nor  Luxemburg  had  been  chosen  as  delegate,  al- 
though desperate  efforts  were  made  to  have  them  elected. 

213 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

been  induced  to  attend  by  the  representation  that  it  was  to 
be  a  demonstration  in  favor  of  the  national  assembly.  It 
is  also  asserted  that  others  were  forced  by  Spartacans  with 
drawn  revolvers  to  leave  their  factories. 

"December  17th.  The  second  day's  session  of  the  Con- 
gress was  marked  by  a  virulent  attack  on  Ebert  by  Lede- 
bour,  between  whom  and  Liebknecht  there  is  little  differ- 
ence. The  reception  of  his  speech  by  the  delegates  again 
demonstrated  that  the  Majority  Socialists  make  up  nine- 
tenths  of  the  assembly.  Barth  also  took  it  upon  himself  to 
attack  Ebert  and  to  disclose  secrets  of  the  inner  workings 
of  the  cabinet.  Ebert  answered  with  an  indignant  protest 
against  being  thus  attacked  from  the  rear.  Barth  has  the 
lowest  mentality  of  all  the  six  cabinet  members,  and  I  am 
informed  on  good  authority  that  he  has  an  unsavory  record. 
His  alleged  offenses  are  of  a  nature  regarded  by  advanced 
penologists  as  pathological  rather  than  criminal,  but  how- 
ever that  may  be,  he  seems  hardly  fitted  for  participation 
in  any  governing  body. 

''Liebknecht's  followers  staged  another  demonstration 
like  that  of  yesterday.  The  Congress  had  decided  that  no 
outsiders  should  be  permitted  again  to  interrupt  the  pro- 
ceedings, but  a  delegation  of  some  forty  men  and  women 
from  the  Schwarzkopff,  Knorr  and  other  red  factories, 
bearing  banners  inscribed  with  Bolshevik  demands,  insisted 
on  entering  and  nobody  dared  oppose  them.  They  filed  on- 
to the  platform  and  read  their  stock  resolutions,  cheered  by 
the  little  group  of  their  soul-brothers  among  the  deputies 
and  by  fanatics  in  the  public  galleries.  Beyond  temporarily 
interrupting  the  proceedings  of  the  Congress  they  accom- 
plished nothing. 

"The  incompetence — to  use  no  stronger  word — of  the 
Vollzugsrat  was  again  demonstrated  today,  as  well  as  its 
careless  financial  methods. 

"December  i8th.  A  well-dressed  German  who  stands  be- 
side me  in  the  diplomatic  gallery  insists  on  explaining  to  all 
occupants  of  the  gallery  that  it  is  intolerable  that  the  speaker 
now  in  the  tribune  should  be  permitted  to  speak  of  the  late 
'revolt.'  Tt  was  not  a  revolt;  it  was  a  revolution,  and  they 

214 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

ought  to  compel  him  to  call  it  that,'  he  says.  How  typical 
of  the  mentality  of  a  great  number  of  the  delegates  them- 
selves !  They  have  spent  precious  hours  discussing  Marx 
and  Bebel  and  the  brotherhood  of  man — which,  however, 
appears  to  extend  only  to  the  proletariat — but  only  two  or 
three  clear  heads  have  talked  of  practical  things.  The  failure 
of  the  Socialists  generally  to  realize  that  it  is  not  now  a 
question  of  doing  what  they  would  like  to  do,  but  what  they 
must  do,  is  extraordinary  and  amazing.  One  speaker  has 
read  nearly  a  chapter  from  one  of  Bebel's  books.  Only  a 
few  leaders  are  clear-sighted  enough  to  insist  that  it  is  more 
important  just  now  to  save  Germany  from  disintegration 
and  the  German  people  from  starvation  than  to  impose  the 
doctrines  of  internationalism  upon  a  world  not  yet  ready 
for  them.  The  members  of  the  average  high  school  debat- 
ing club  in  any  American  city  have  a  keener  sense  for  prac- 
tical questions  than  has  the  great  majority  of  this  Con- 
gress.^ 

"December  19th.  The  Congress  tonight  changed  the  date 
for  the  National  Assembly  from  February  i6th  to  January 
19th.  Hardly  forty  of  the  delegates  opposed  the  change. 
These  forty — Independents  and  Spartacans — tried  vainly 
to  have  a  resolution  passed  committing  Germany  to  the  Rus- 
sian Soviet  system,  but  the  vast  majority  would  have  none  of 
it.  Haase  spoke  in  favor  of  the  National  Assemibly.  If  he 
maintains  this  course  his  cooperation  with  the  three  Major- 
ity members  of  the  cabinet  will  be  valuable,  but  he  is  a  trim- 
mer and  undependable. 

"The  Congress  was  enabled  by  a  bolt  of  the  Independents 
to  accomplish  another  valuable  bit  of  work,  viz.,  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  new  central  Vollzugsrat  made  up  entirely  of 
Majority  Socialists.  It  includes  some  excellent  men,  notably 
Cohen  of  Reuss,  whose  speech  in  advocacy  of  the  National 
Assembly  and  of  changing  its  date  has  been  the  most  logi- 
cal and  irrefutable  speech  made  during  the  Congress,  and 
Leinert,  first  chairman  of  the  Congress.  With  the  support 
of  this  new  executive  committee  the  cabinet  will  have  no 

^This  may  appear  to  be  an  extravagant  comparison,  but  it  is  so  near  the 
truth  that  I  let  it  stand. 

215 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

excuse  if  it  continues  to  shilly-shally  along  and  fails  to  ex- 
hibit some  backbone. 

"But  I  am  apprehensive.  A  scraggly-bearded  fanatic  in 
one  of  the  public  galleries  today  repeatedly  howled  insults 
at  Majority  Socialist  speakers,  and,  although  repeated  re- 
monstrances were  made,  nobody  had  enough  energy  or 
courage  to  throw  him  out.  Leinert  once  threatened  to  clear 
the  galleries  if  the  demonstrations  there  were  repeated. 
The  spectators  promptly  responded  with  hoots,  hisses  and 
the  shaking  of  fists,  but  the  galleries  were  not  cleared. 

"German  government  in  miniature!  The  same  mentality 
that  places  guards  before  public  buildings  and  orders  them 
not  to  use  their  weapons!  Sancta  simplicitas!** 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  foregoing  report,  compara- 
tively lengthy  though  it  is,  fails  to  record  an  amount  of 
legislative  business  commensurate  with  the  length  of  the 
session.  And  yet  there  is  little  to  add  to  it,  for  but  two  things 
of  importance  were  done — the  alteration  of  the  date  for 
holding  the  elections  for  the  National  Assembly  and  the 
appointment  of  the  new  Vollzugsrat.  Outside  this  the  ac- 
complishments of  the  Congress  were  mainly  along  the  line 
of  refusing  to  yield  to  Independent  and  Spartacan  pressure 
designed  to  anchor  the  soviet  scheme  in  the  government. 
New  light  is  thrown  on  the  old  Vollzugsrat  by  the  fact  that 
it  had  invited  the  Russian  Government  to  send  delegates 
to  the  Congress.  The  cabinet  had  learned  of  this  in  time, 
and  a  week  before  the  Congress  was  to  assemble  it  sent  a 
wireless  message  to  Petrograd,  asking  the  government  to 
abstain  from  sending  delegates  "in  view  of  the  present  sit- 
uation in  Germany."  The  Russians  nevertheless  tried  to 
come,  but  were  stopped  at  the  frontier. 

The  manner  in  which  Haase  and  Dittmann  had  sup- 
ported their  Majority  Socialist  colleagues  in  the  cabinet  by 
their  speeches  during  the  Congress  had  demonstrated  that, 
while  there  were  differences  between  the  two  groups,  they 
were  not  insurmountable.  The  events  of  the  week  following 
the  Congress  of  Soviets,  however,  altered  the  situation  com- 
pletely. 

It  has  been  related  how,  in  the  days  preceding  the  actual 

216 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

revolution  in  Berlin,  the  so-called  "People's  Marine  Divi- 
sion" had  been  summoned  to  the  capital  to  protect  the  gov- 
ernment. It  was  quartered  in  the  Royal  Stables  and  the 
Royal  Palace,  and  was  entrusted  with  the  custody  of  the 
Palace  and  its  treasures. 

It  speedily  became  apparent  that  a  wolf  had  been  placed 
in  charge  of  the  sheepfold.  The  division,  which  had  origi- 
nally consisted  of  slightly  more  than  six  hundred  men, 
gradually  swelled  to  more  than  three  thousand,  despite  the 
fact  that  no  recruiting  for  it  nor  increase  in  its  numbers  had 
been  authorized.  A  great  part  of  the  men  performed  no  serv- 
ice whatever,  terrorized  inoffending  people,  and,  as  investi- 
gation by  the  Finance  Ministry  disclosed,  stole  everything 
movable  in  the  Palace. 

The  division  demanded  that  it  be  permitted  to  increase 
its  numbers  to  five  thousand  and  that  it  be  made  a  part  of  the 
Republican  Soldier  Guard  in  charge  of  the  city's  police  serv- 
ice. This  demand  was  refused  by  the  City  Commandant, 
Otto  Wels,  since  the  ranks  of  the  Soldier  Guard  were  al- 
ready full.  A  compromise  was  eventually  reached  by  which 
those  of  the  division  who  had  formerly  been  employed  on 
police  duty  and  who  were  fathers  of  families  and  residents 
of  Berlin,  would  be  added  to  the  police  force  if  the  Marine 
Division  would  surrender  the  keys  to  the  Palace  which  it 
was  looting.  The  Marines  agreed  to  this,  but  failed  to  sur- 
render the  keys.  On  December  2ist  a  payment  of  eighty 
thousand  marks  was  to  be  made  to  them  for  their  supposed 
services.  Wels  refused  to  hand  over  the  money  until  the  keys 
to  the  Palace  had  been  surrendered- 

Wels  had  incurred  the  deep  hatred  of  the  more  radical 
elements  of  the  capital  by  his  sturdy  opposition  to  lawless- 
ness. He  was  almost  the  only  Majority  Socialist  function- 
ary who  had  displayed  unbending  energy  in  his  efforts  to 
uphold  the  authority  of  the  government,  and  public 
demonstrations  against  him  had  already  been  held,  in 
which  he  was  classed  with  Ebert  and  Scheidemann  as  a 
"bloodhound."  The  leaders  of  the  Marine  Division  decided 
reluctantly  to  give  up  the  Palace  keys,  but  they  would  not 
hand  them  over  to  the  hated  Wels.  Early  in  the  afternoon 

217 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

of  December  23d  they  sought  out  Barth,  the  member  of  the 
cabinet  who  stood  closest  to  them,  and  gave  the  keys  to  him. 
Barth  telephoned  to  Wels  that  the  keys  had  been  surren- 
dered. Wels  pointed  out  that  Ebert  was  the  member  of  the 
cabinet  in  charge  of  military  affairs,  and  declared  that  he 
would  pay  out  the  eighty  thousand  marks  only  upon  receipt 
of  advices  that  the  keys  were  in  Ebert's  possession. 

The  delivery  to  Barth  of  the  keys  had  been  entrusted 
two  marines  who  constituted  the  military  post  at  the  Chan- 
cellor's Palace.  These  men,  informed  of  Wels's  attitude,  oc- 
cupied the  telephone  central  in  the  palace,  and  informed 
Ebert  and  Landsberg  that  Dorrenbach,  their  commander, 
had  ordered  that  no  one  be  permitted  to  leave  or  enter  the 
building.  An  hour  later,  at  five-thirty  o'clock,  the  Marines 
left  the  building,  but  in  the  evening  the  whole  division  ap- 
peared before  the  palace  and  occupied  it. 

Government  troops,  summoned  by  telephone,  also  ap- 
peared, and  an  armed  clash  appeared  imminent.  Ebert, 
however,  finally  induced  the  Marines  to  leave  on  condition 
that  the  government  troops  also  left. 

While  this  was  going  on,  a  detachment  of  Marines  had 
entered  Wels's  office,  compelled  him  at  the  point  of  their 
guns  to  pay  out  the  eighty  thousand  marks  due  them,  and 
had  then  marched  him  to  the  Royal  Stables,  where  he  was 
locked  up  in  a  cellar  and  threatened  with  death.  Ebert, 
Scheidemann  and  Landsberg,  without  consulting  their  col- 
leagues, ordered  the  Minister  of  War  to  employ  all  force 
necessary  for  the  release  of  Wels.  At  the  last  moment,  how- 
ever, negotiations  were  entered  into  and  Wels  was  released 
shortly  after  midnight  on  the  Marines'  terms. 

Spartacans  and  radical  Independents  took  the  part  of  the 
Marines.  Richard  Miiller,  Ledebour,  Daumig  and  other 
members  of  the  defunct  original  Vollzugsrat  were  galvan- 
ized into  new  opposition.  Ledebour's  "Revolutionary  Fore- 
men of  Greater  Berlin  Industries"  demanded  the  retire- 
ment of  the  Independent  Socialist  members  of  the  cabinet, 
and  the  demand  was  approvingly  published  by  Die  Frei- 
heity  the  party's  official  organ.  The  head  and  forefront  of 
the  Majority  cabinet  members'  offending  was  their  order  to 

218 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

the  War  Minister  to  use  force  in  upholding  the  govern- 
ment's authority,  and  radical  revolutionists  condemn  force 
when  it  is  employed  against  themselves. 

The  position  of  Haase  and  Dittmann  as  party  leaders 
was  seriously  shaken.  The  left  wing  of  their  party,  led  by 
Eichhorn  and  Ledebour,  was  on  the  point  of  disavowing 
them  as  leaders  and  even  as  members  of  the  party.  At  the 
party's  caucuses  in  Greater  Berlin  on  December  26th,  held 
to  nominate  candidates  for  delegates  to  the  coming  Na- 
tional Assembly,  Ledebour  refused  to  permit  his  name  to  be 
printed  on  the  same  ticket  with  Haase's,  and  Eichhorn  se- 
cured 326  votes  to  271  for  the  party's  head. 

On  the  evening  of  the  same  day  the  Independents  in  the 
cabinet  submitted  eight  formulated  questions  to  the  Voll- 
zugsrat,  in  which  this  body  was  asked  to  define  its  attitude  as 
to  various  matters.  The  Vollzugsrat  answered  a  majority 
of  the  questions  in  a  sense  favorable  to  the  Independents. 
Its  answer  to  one  important  question,  however,  gave  the  In- 
dependents the  pretext  for  which  they  were  looking.  The 
question  ran : 

"Does  the  Vollzugsrat  approve  that  the  cabinet  members 
Ebert,  Scheidemann  and  Lansberg  on  the  night  of  Decem- 
ber 23d  conferred  upon  the  Minister  of  War  the  authority, 
in  no  manner  limited,  to  employ  military  force  against  the 
People's  Marine  Division  in  the  Palace  and  Stables?" 

The  executive  council's  answer  was : 

"The  people's  commissioners  merely  gave  the  order  to 
do  what  was  necessary  to  liberate  Comrade  Wels.  Nor  was 
this  done  until  after  the  three  commissioners  had  been  ad- 
vised by  telephone  by  the  leader  of  the  People's  Marine  Di- 
vision that  he  could  not  longer  guarantee  the  life  of  Com- 
rade Wels.  The  Vollzugsrat  approves." 

The  Vollzugsrat  itself  presented  a  question.  It  asked : 

"Are  the  People's  Commissioners  prepared  to  protect 
public  order  and  safety,  and  also  and  especially  private  and 
public  property,  against  forcible  attacks?  Are  they  also  pre- 
pared to  use  the  powers  at  their  disposal  to  prevent  them- 
selves and  their  organs  from  being  interfered  with  in  their 
conduct  of  public  affairs  by  acts  of  violence,  irrespective  of 
whence  these  may  come?" 

219 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

The  Independents,  for  whom  Dittmann  spoke,  hereupon 
declared  that  they  retired  from  the  government.  Thus  they 
avoided  the  necessity  of  answering  the  Vollstigsrat's  ques- 
tion. In  a  subsequent  statement  published  in  their  press  the 
trio  declared  that  the  Majority  members  were  encouraging 
counter-revolution  by  refusing  to  check  the  power  of  the 
military.  They  themselves,  they  asserted,  were  a  short  while 
earlier  in  a  position  to  take  over  the  government  alone, 
but  they  could  not  do  so  since  their  principles  did  not  per- 
mit them  to  work  with  a  Majority  Socialist  Vollzugsrat. 
What  they  meant  by  saying  that  they  could  have  assumed 
complete  control  of  the  cabinet  was  not  explained,  and  it  was 
probably  an  over-optimistic  statement.  There  is  no  reason  to 
believe  that  the  Independents  had  up  to  this  time  been  in  a 
position  enabling  them  to  throw  the  Majority  Socialists  out 
of  the  cabinet. 

Ebert,  Scheidemann  and  Landsberg,  in  a  manifesto  to 
the  people,  declared  that  the  Independents  had,  by  their 
resignations,  refused  to  take  a  stand  in  favor  of  assuring 
the  safety  of  the  state.  The  manifesto  said : 

"By  rejecting  the  means  of  assuring  the  state's  safety, 
the  Independents  have  demonstrated  their  incapacity  to 
govern.  For  us  the  revolution  is  not  a  party  watchword,  but 
the  most  valuable  possession  of  the  whole  wealth-produc- 
ing folk. 

"We  take  over  their  tasks  as  people's  commissioners  with 
the  oath :  All  for  the  revolution,  all  through  the  revolution. 
But  we  take  them  over  at  the  same  time  with  the  firm  pur- 
pose to  oppose  immovably  all  who  would  convert  the  revo- 
lution of  the  people  into  terror  by  a  minority." 

The  Vollzugsrat  elected  to  fill  the  three  vacancies :  Gus- 
tav  Noske,  still  governor  of  Kiel :  Herr  Wissell,  a  member 
of  the  old  Reichstag,  and  Herr  Loebe,  editor  of  the  Social- 
ist Volkswacht  of  Breslau.  Loebe,  however,  never  assumed 
office,  and  the  cabinet  consisted  of  five  members  until  it  was 
abolished  by  act  of  the  National  Assembly  in  February. 

The  Majority  Socialists  staged  a  big  demonstration  on 
Sunday,  December  29th,  in  favor  of  the  new  government. 
Thousands  of  the  bourgeoisie    joined    in    a    great    parade, 

220 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

which  ended  with  a  tremendous  assembly  in  front  of  the 
government  offices  in  the  Wiihelmstrasse.  The  size  and 
character  of  the  demonstration  showed  that  the  great  ma- 
jority of  Berlin's  law-abiding  residents  were  on  the  side 
of  Ebert  and  his  colleagues. 

The  Majority  Socialists  did  not  take  over  the  sole  re- 
sponsibility for  the  government  with  a  light  heart.  They 
had  begun  to  realize  something  of  the  character  of  the  forces 
working  against  them  and  were  saddened  because  they  had 
been  compelled  to  abandon  party  traditions  by  relying  upon 
armed  force.  Yet  there  was  clearly  no  way  of  avoiding  it. 
The  Spartacans  were  organizing  their  cohorts  in  Bremen, 
Hamburg,  Kiel  and  other  cities,  and  had  already  seized  the 
government  of  Diisseldorf,  where  they  had  dissolved  the 
city  council  and  arrested  Mayor  Oehler.  The  Soviets  of 
Solingen  and  Remscheid  had  accepted  the  Spartacan  pro- 
gram by  a  heavy  majority.  The  state  government  of  Bruns- 
wick had  adopted  resolutions  declaring  that  the  National 
Assembly  could  not  be  permitted  to  meet.  At  a  meeting  of 
the  Munich  Communists  Emil  Miihsam^  had  been  greeted 
with  applause  when  he  declared  that  the  summons  for  the 
assembly  was  "the  common  battle-cry  of  reaction."  Resolu- 
tions were  passed  favoring  the  nullification  of  all  war-loans.^ 

The  Spartacans  (on  December  30th)  had  reorganized  as 
the  "Communist  Laborers'  Party  of  Germany — Spartacus 
League."  Radek-Sobelsohn,  who  had  for  some  weeks 
been  carrying  on  his  Bolshevik  propaganda  from  various 
hiding  places,  attended  the  meeting  and  made  a  speech  in 
which  he  declared  that  the  Spartacans  must  not  let  them- 
selves be  frightened  by  the  fear  of  civil  war.  Rosa  Luxem- 
burg openly  summoned  her  hearers  to  battle. 

The  authority  of  the  national  government  was  small  in 
any  event,   and  was   openly   flouted  and  opposed  in  some 

^Miihsam  was  one  of  the  characteristic  types  of  Bolsheviki.  For  years  he 
had  been  an  unwashed,  unshorn  and  unshaven  literary  loafer  in  Berlin  cafes, 
whose  chief  ability  consisted  in  securing  a  following  of  naive  persons  willing 
to  buy  drinks  for  him. 

^The  left  wing  of  the  Independent  Socialist  Party  already  demanded  nul- 
lification, and  the  whole  party  drifted  so  rapidly  leftward  that  a  platform 
adopted  by  it  in  the  first  week  of  the  following  March  definitely  demanded 
nullification. 

221 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

places.  Sailors  and  marines  had  organized  the  Republic  of 
Oldenburg-East  Frisia  and  elected  an  unlettered  sailor 
named  Bernhard  Kuhnt  as  president.  The  president  of  the 
Republic  of  Brunswick  was  a  bushelman  tailor  named  Leo 
Merges,  and  the  minister  of  education  was  a  woman  who 
had  been  a  charwoman  and  had  been  discharged  by  a 
woman's  club  for  which  she  had  worked  for  petty  peculations. 
Kurt  Eisner,  minister-president  of  Bavaria,  was  a  dreamy, 
long-haired  Communist  writer  who  had  earlier  had  to  leave 
the  editorial  staff  of  Vorwdrts  because  of  an  utter  lack  of 
practical  common-sense.  He  was  a  fair  poet  and  an  excel- 
lent feuilletonist,  but  quite  unfitted  to  participate  in  govern- 
mental affairs.  His  opposition  to  the  national  government 
severely  handicapped  it,  and  the  Bavarian  state  government 
was  at  the  same  time  crippled  by  the  natural  antagonism  of 
a  predominantly  Catholic  people  to  a  Jewish  president. 

To  the  south  the  Czechs  had  occupied  Bodenbach  and 
Tetschen  in  German  Bohemia,  and  were  threatening  the 
border.  To  the  east  the  Poles,  unwilling  to  await  the  awards 
of  the  peace  conference,  had  seized  the  city  of  Posen,  were 
taxing  the  German  residents  there  for  the  maintenance  of 
an  army  to  be  used  against  their  own  government,  and  had 
given  notice  that  a  war  loan  was  to  be  issued.  Paderewski, 
head  of  the  new  Polish  Government,  had  been  permitted  to 
land  at  Danzig  on  the  promise  that  he  would  proceed  di- 
rectly to  Warsaw.  Instead,  he  went  to  Posen  and  made  in- 
flammatory speeches  against  the  Germans  until  the  Eng- 
lish officer  accompanying  him  was  directed  by  the  British 
Government  to  see  that  the  terms  of  the  promise  to  the  Ger- 
man government  were  obeyed.  The  German  Government,  en- 
deavoring to  assemble  and  transport  sufficient  forces  to  repel 
Polish  aggressions  against  German  territory,  found  opposi- 
tion among  the  Spartacans  and  Independent  Socialists  at 
home,  and  from  the  Bolshevik  Brunswick  authorities,  who 
announced  that  no  government  troops  would  be  permitted  to 
pass  through  the  state,  or  to  be  recruited  there.  Government 
troops  entering  Brunswick  were  disarmed.  The  state  gov- 
ernment gave  the  Berlin  cabinet  notice  that  decrees  of  the 


222 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

Minister  of  War  had  no  validity  in  Brunswick.  General 
Scheuch,  the  Minister  of  War,  resigned  in  disgust. 

What  later  became  an  epidemic  of  strikes  began.  Seventy- 
thousand  workers  were  idle  in  Berlin.  Upper  Silesia  re- 
ported serious  labor  troubles  throughout  the  mining  dis- 
tricts, due  to  Russian  and  German  Bolshevist  agitators  and 
Poles. 

A  less  happy  New  Year  for  men  responsible  for  the  af- 
fairs of  a  great  state  was  doubtless  never  recorded. 


223 


CHAPTER  XV. 

Liebknecht  Tries  to  Overthrow  the 
Government;  Is  Arrested  and  Killed. 

IN  the  six  weeks  that  Emil  Eichhorn  had  been  Police- 
President  of  Berlin  the  situation  in  his  department  had 
become  a  public  scandal.  The  arming  of  the  criminal  and 
hooligan  classes  by  this  guardian  of  public  safety,  which 
had  at  first  been  carried  on  quietly,  was  now  being  done 
openly  and  shamelessly,  and  had  reached  great  propor- 
tions. Liebknecht  and  Ledebour,  Spartacan  and  Independ- 
ent, were  in  constant  and  close  fellowship  with  him.  A  con- 
siderable part  of  the  Republican  Soldier  Guard  had  been 
turned  from  allegiance  to  the  government  that  had  appointed 
them  and  could  be  reckoned  as  adherents  of  Eichhorn.  The 
Berlin  police  department  had  become  an  imperium  in 
imperio. 

The  Vollzugsrat  conducted  a  formal  investigation  of 
Eichhorn's  official  acts.  The  investigation,  which  was  con- 
ducted honestly  and  with  dignity,  convicted  the  Police- 
President  of  gross  inefficiency,  insubordination,  diversion 
and  conversion  of  public  funds,  and  conduct  designed  to 
weaken  and  eventually  overthrow  the  government.  Vor- 
wdrts  was  able  to  disclose  the  further  fact  that  Eichhorn 
had  throughout  his  term  of  office  been  drawing  a  salary  of 
1, 800  marks  monthly  from  Lenine's  Rosta,  the  Bolshevik 
propaganda-central  for  Germany.  The  Vollzugsrat  removed 
Eichhorn  from  office. 

Eichhorn,  relying  on  the  armed  forces  at  his  disposal  and 
doubtless  equally  on  the  probability  that  a  Socialist  govern- 
ment would  not  dare  use  actual  force  against  Genossen,  re- 

225 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

fused  to  comply  with  the  order  for  his  removal.  The  more 
ignorant  of  his  followers — and  this  embraced  a  great  pro- 
portion— saw  in  the  Vollzugsrafs  action  the  first  move  in 
that  counter-revolution  whose  specter  had  so  artfully  been 
kept  before  their  eyes  by  their  leaders. 

It  is  a  current  saying  in  England  that  when  an  English- 
man has  a  grievance,  he  writes  to  the  Times  about  it.  When 
a  German  has  a  grievance,  he  organizes  a  parade  and 
marches  through  the  city  carrying  banners  and  transpar- 
encies, and  shouting  hoch!  (hurrah!)  for  his  friends  and 
nieder!  (down)  with  his  enemies.  On  Sunday,  January  5th, 
a  great  demonstration  was  staged  as  a  protest  against  Eich- 
horn's  removal.  It  is  significant  that,  although  Eichhorn 
was  an  Independent  Socialist,  the  moving  spirit  and  chief 
orator  of  the  day  was  the  Spartacan  Liebknecht.  This,  too, 
despite  the  fact  that  at  the  convention  where  the  Spartacus 
League  had  been  reorganized  a  week  earlier,  the  Independ- 
ents had  been  roundly  denounced  as  timorous  individuals 
and  enemies  of  Simon-Pure  Socialism.  Similar  denunciations 
of  the  Spartacans  had  come  from  the  Independents.  The  psy- 
chology of  it  all  is  puzzling,  and  the  author  contents  him- 
self with  recording  the  facts  without  attempting  to  explain 
them. 

Sunday's  parade  was  of  imposing  proportions,  and  it  was 
marked  by  a  grim  earnestness  that  foreboded  trouble.  The 
organizers  claimed  that  150,000  persons  were  in  the  line  of 
march.  The  real  number  was  probably  around  twenty  thou- 
sand. Transparencies  bore  defiant  inscriptions.  "Down  with 
Ebert  and  Scheidemann,  the  Bloodhounds  and  Grave-dig- 
gers of  the  Revolution!"  was  a  favorite  device.  "Down  with 
the  Bloodhound  Wels!"  was  another.  Cheers  for  "our  Po- 
lice-President" and  groans  for  the  cabinet  were  continuous 
along  the  line  of  march.  The  great  mass  of  the  paraders 
were  ragged,  underfed,  miserable  men  and  women,  mute 
testimony  to  the  sufferings  of  the  war-years. 

Liebknecht  addressed  the  paraders.  Counter-revolution, 
he  declared,  was  already  showing  its  head.  The  Ebert- 
Scheidemann  government  must  be  overthrown  and  the  real 

226 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

friends  of  the  revolution  must  not  shrink  from  using  vio- 
lence if  violence  were  necessary.  Others  spoke  in  a  similar 
vein. 

Conditions  appeared  propitious  for  the  coup  that  had  been 
preparing  for  a  month.  Late  Sunday  evening  armed  Spar- 
tacans  occupied  the  plants  of  the  Vorwdrts,  Tageblatt, 
the  Ullstein  Company  (publishers  of  Die  Morgenpost  and 
Berliner  Zeitung-am-Mittag) ,  the  Lokal-Anzeiger  and  the 
Wolff  Bureau. 

The  Spartacans  in  the  Vorwdrts  plant  published  on  Mon- 
day morning  Der  rote  Vorwdrts  (the  Red  Vorwdrts').  It 
contained  a  boastful  leading  article  announcing  that  the 
paper  had  been  taken  over  by  "real  revolutionists,"  and  that 
"no  power  on  earth  shall  take  it  from  us."  The  Liebknecht- 
ians  also  seized  on  Monday  the  Biixenstein  plant,  where 
the  Kreuz-Zeitung  is  printed.  There  was  much  promiscuous 
shooting  in  various  parts  of  the  city.  Spartacans  fired  on 
unarmed  government  supporters  in  front  of  the  war  minis- 
try, killing  one  man  and  wounding  two.  There  were  also 
bloody  clashes  at  Wilhelm  Platz,  Potsdamer  Platz  and  in 
Unter  den  Linden. 

The  Vollzugsrat  rose  to  the  occasion  like  a  bourgeois 
governing  body.  It  conferred  extraordinary  powers  on  the 
cabinet  and  authorized  it  to  use  all  force  at  its  disposal  to 
put  down  the  Bolshevist  uprising.  That  it  was  Bolshevist 
was  now  apparent  to  everybody.  The  cabinet,  still  hesitant 
about  firing  on  Genossen,  conferred  with  the  Independents 
Haase,  Dittmann,  Cohn  and  Dr.  Rudolf  Breitscheid,  the 
last  named  one  of  the  so-called  "intellectual  leaders"  of  the 
Independent  Socialists.  These  men  wanted  the  government 
to  "compromise."  The  cabinet  declared  it  could  listen  to  no 
proposals  until  the  occupied  newspaper  plants  should  have 
been  restored  to  their  rightful  owners.  The  delegation  with- 
drew to  confer  with  the  Spartacan  leaders.  These  refused 
flatly  to  surrender  their  usurped  strongholds. 

Several  lively  street  battles  marked  the  course  of  Tuesday, 
January  7th.  The  Spartacans  succeeded  in  driving  the  gov- 
ernment troops  from  the  Brandenburger  Tor,  but  after  a 
short  time  were  in  turn  driven  out.  Spartacan  and  Independ- 

227 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

ent  Socialist  parades  filled  the  streets  of  the  old  city.  The 
government  did  nothing  to  stop  these  demonstrations. 
Haase  and  the  other  members  of  Monday's  delegation  spent 
most  of  the  day  trying  to  induce  the  government  to  com- 
promise. Their  ingenious  idea  of  a  "compromise"  was  for 
the  entire  cabinet  to  resign  and  be  replaced  by  a  "parity" 
government  made  up  of  two  Majority  Socialists,  two  In- 
dependents and  two  Spartacans.  This,  of  course,  would  have 
meant  in  effect  a  government  of  four  Bolsheviki  and  two 
Majority  Socialists.  Despite  their  traditions  of  and  train- 
ing in  party  "solidarity,"  the  cabinet  could  not  help  seeing 
that  the  "compromise"  proposed  would  mean  handing  the 
government  over  bodily  to  Liebknecht,  for  Haase  and  Ditt- 
mann  had  long  lost  all  power  to  lead  their  former  follow- 
ers back  into  democratic  paths.  The  bulk  of  the  party  was 
already  irrevocably  committed  to  practical  Bolshevism. 
The  scholarly  Eduard  Bernstein,  who  had  followed  Haase 
and  the  other  seceders  from  the  Majority  Socialists  in  191 6, 
had  announced  his  return  to  the  parent  party.  In  a  long  ex- 
planation of  the  reasons  for  his  course  he  denounced  the  In- 
dependents as  lacking  any  constructive  program  and  with 
having  departed  from  their  real  mission.  They  had  become,, 
he  declared,  a  party  committed  to  tearing  down  existing  in- 
stitutions. Other  adherents  of  the  party's  right  wing  refused 
to  have  anything  to  do  with  the  new  course. 

The  night  of  January  7th  was  marked  by  hard  fighting. 
Spartacans  repeatedly  attacked  government  troops  at  the 
Anhalt  Railway  Station  in  the  Koniggratzerstrasse,  but 
were  repulsed  with  heavy  losses.  They  also  attacked  the 
government  troops  defending  the  Potsdam  Railway  Station, 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  north  from  the  Anhalt  Station,  but  were 
also  repulsed  there.  Government  soldiers,  however,  had  con- 
siderable losses  in  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  retake  the 
Wolff  Bureau  building  at  Charlottenstrasse  and  Zimmer- 
strasse.  On  Wednesday,  the  section  of  the  city  around  the 
Brandenburger  Tor  was  again  filled  with  parading  Bol- 
sheviki, but  the  government  had  plucked  up  enough  courage 
and  decision  to  decree  that  no  parades  should  be  permitted 
to  enter  Wilhelmstrasse,  where  the  seat  of  government  is 

228 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

situated.  Spartacans  attempted  to  invade  this  street  in  the 
afternoon,  but  scattered  when  government  soldiers  fired  a 
few  shots,  although  the  soldiers  fired  into  the  air.  The  In- 
dependent go-betweens  again  assailed  the  cabinet  in  an  ef- 
fort to  secure  the  "compromise"  government  suggested  the 
day  before.  The  delegation  was  hampered,  however,  both 
by  the  fact  that  the  cabinet  realized  what  such  a  compro- 
mise would  mean  and  by  the  fact  that  the  Independents  could 
promise  nothing.  The  Spartacans  stubbornly  refused  to  sur- 
render the  captured  newspaper  plants,  and  the  Independ- 
ents themselves  were  committed  to  the  retention  in  office 
of  Eichhorn. 

Eichhorn,  still  at  his  desk  in  Police  Headquarters,  re- 
fused even  to  admit  to  the  building  Police-President  Rich- 
ter  of  Charlottenburg,  who  had  been  named  as  his  succes- 
sor, and  he  and  his  aides  were  still  busily  arming  deluded 
workingmen  and  young  hooligans  of  sixteen  and  seventeen, 
as  well  as  some  women.  The  People's  Marine  Division  an- 
nounced that  it  sided  with  the  government,  but  it  played 
little  part  in  its  defense. 

The  rattle  of  machine-guns  and  the  crack  of  rifles  kept 
Berliners  awake  nearly  all  night.  The  hardest  fighting  was 
at  the  Tageblatt  plant,  in  front  of  the  Foreign  Office  and 
the  Chancellor's  Palace,  and  around  the  Brandenburger  Tor. 
Thursday  morning  found  the  government  decided  to  put 
an  end  to  the  unbearable  conditions.  It  was  announced  that 
no  parades  would  be  tolerated  and  that  government  sol- 
diers had  been  ordered  to  shoot  to  kill  if  any  such  aggrega- 
tions disobeyed  orders  to  disperse.  Spartacus,  realizing  that 
the  government  meant  what  it  said,  called  no  meetings,  and 
the  streets  were  free  of  howling  demonstrants  for  the  first 
time  since  Sunday. 

The  government  further  addressed  a  proclamation  to  the 
people,  addressing  them  this  time  as  Mitbiirger  (fellow-citi- 
zens), instead  of  Genossen.  It  announced  that  negotiations 
had  been  broken  off  with  the  rebels,  and  assailed  the  dis- 
honest and  dishonorable  tactics  of  the  Independent  Social- 
ists represented  by  the  Haase-Dittmann  delegation.  Die 
Freiheit  and  Der  rote  Vorwdrts  assailed  the  government; 

229 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

still  the  proclamation  had  a  good  effect  and  decent  elements 
generally  rallied  to  the  government's  support.  The  day's 
fighting  was  confined  to  the  Tageblatt  plant,  where  three 
hundred  Bolsheviki  were  entrenched  to  defend  the  liberty  of 
other  people's  property.  The  place  could  have  been  taken 
with  artillery,  but  it  was  desired  to  spare  the  building  if 
possible. 

Friday  passed  with  only  scattered  sniping.  The  Spar- 
tacans  and  their  Independent  helpers  grew  boastful.  They 
had  not  yet  learned  to  know  what  manner  of  man  Gustav 
Noske,  the  new  cabinet  member,  was.  They  made  his  ac- 
quaintance early  Saturday  morning.  Before  the  sun  had  risen 
government  troops  had  posted  themselves  with  artillery  and 
mine-throwers  a  few  hundred  yards  from  the  Vorwdrts 
plant.  The  battle  was  short  and  decisive.  A  single  mine 
swept  out  of  existence  the  Spartacans'  barricade  in  front  of 
the  building,  and  a  few  more  shots  made  the  building  ripe 
for  storm.  The  government  troops  lost  only  two  or  three 
men,  but  more  than  a  score  of  Bolsheviki  were  killed  and 
more  than  a  hundred,  including  some  Russians  and  women, 
were  captured.  The  Vorwdrts  plant  was  a  new  building  and 
much  more  valuable  than  some  of  the  other  plants  occupied 
by  the  Spartacans,  but  it  was  selected  for  bombardment 
because  the  cabinet  members  wished  to  show,  by  sacrificing 
their  own  party's  property  first,  that  they  were  not  playing 
favorites. 

The  fall  of  the  Vorwdrts  stronghold  and  the  firm  stand 
of  the  government  disheartened  the  mercenary  and  crimi- 
nal recruits  of  the  Spartacans.  Police  Headquarters,  the 
real  center  of  the  revolutionary  movement,  was  taken  early 
Sunday  morning  after  a  few  1 0.5 -centimeter  shells  had  been 
fired  into  it.  The  official  report  told  of  twelve  Spartacans 
killed,  but  their  casualties  were  actually  much  higher.  Eich- 
horn  had  chosen  the  better  part  of  valor  and  disappeared. 
The  Bolsheviki  occupying  the  various  newspaper  plants  be- 
gan deserting  en  masse  over  neighboring  roofs  and  the 
plants  were  occupied  by  government  troops  without  a  con- 
test. News  came  that  Liebknecht's  followers  had  also  aban- 
doned the  Boetzow  Brewery  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  city, 

230 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

one  of  their  main  strongholds.  Late  in  the  afternoon  they 
also  fled  from  the  Silesian  Railway  Station,  where  they  had 
been  storing  up  stolen  provisions,  assembling  arms  and  am- 
munition and  preparing  to  make  a  last  desperate  stand. 

The  government,  averse  though  it  was  to  the  employment 
of  force  to  maintain  its  authority,  had  realized  at  the  be- 
ginning of  December  the  increasing  strength  of  the  Spar- 
tacans,  and  had  begun  assembling  a  military  force  of  loyal 
soldiers  in  various  garrisons  outside  the  city.  Three  thou- 
sand of  these  troops  now  marched  into  the  city.  Hundreds  of 
the  men  in  the  ranks  carried  rifles  slung  across  officers' 
shoulder-straps.  They  marched  as  troops  ought  to  march, 
sang  patriotic  songs  and  looked  grimly  determined.  For 
miles  along  their  route  they  were  greeted  by  frantic  cheer- 
ing and  even  by  joyous  tears  from  the  law-abiding  citizens 
who  had  been  terrorized  by  the  scum  of  a  great  capital.^ 

^The  task  of  the  government  was  made  harder  throughout  its  darkest  days 
by  the  aid  and  comfort  given  its  enemies  by  the  character  of  the  reports  pub- 
lished in  certain  enemy  papers  regarding  conditions  in  Germany.  Nearly  the 
entire  Paris  press  regularly  published  extravagantly  untrue  reports  con- 
cerning the  situation,  and  many  English  and  American  papers  followed  suit. 
The  London  Times  of  December  loth  gravely  told  its  readers  that  "in  a 
political  sense  Ebert  is  suspected  of  being  a  mere  tool  of  the  old  regime, 
whose  difficult  task  it  is  to  pave  the  first  stages  of  the  road  to  the  restoration 
of  the  Hohenzollerns  months  or  years  hence."  Three  days  later  it  declared 
that  "  the  German  army  chiefs  propose  to  let  the  Spartacans  upset  the  govern- 
ment so  that  they  can  summon  Hindenburg  to  save  the  day  and  reestablish 
the  monarchy."  Articles  of  this  stamp  were  eagerly  pounced  upon  and  re- 
published by  Independent  Socialist  and  Spartacan  organs  of  the  stamp  of 
Die  Freiheit,  Die  Republik,  Liebknecht's  Die  rote  Fahne,  and  others,  and 
were  of  great  assistance  to  the  enemies  of  good  government  in  their  efforts 
to  convince  the  ignorant  and  fanatical  that  the  government  was  organizing 
a  "white  guard"  for  counter-revolutionary  purposes  and  was  plotting  the 
restoration  of  the  monarchy.  One  dispatch  from  Paris,  published  extensively 
in  the  American  press  on  February  26th,  quoted  in  all  seriousness  "  a  promi- 
nent American  Socialist  in  close  touch  with  German  Liberals  and  with  ex- 
ceptional sources  of  secret  information,"  who  had  learned  that  "  the  German 
revolution  was  a  piece  of  theatrical  manipulation  by  agents  of  the  militaristic 
oligarchy  to  win  an  armistice."  That  such  a  report  could  be  published  in  re- 
sponsible organs  is  a  staggering  commentary  on  the  manner  in  which  the 
war-psychosis  inhibited  clear  thinking.  The  Conservative  Deputy  Hergt, 
speaking  in  the  Prussian  Diet  on  March  15th,  said:  "We  Conservatives  are 
not  conscienceless  enough  to  plunge  the  land  into  civil  warfare.  We  shall 
wait  patiently  until  the  sound  sense  of  the  German  people  shall  demand  a 
return  to  the  monarchic  form  of  government."  American  papers  carried  the 
following  report  of  this  statement :  "  Speaking  before  the  new  Prussian  Diet 
in  Berlin,  Deputy  Hergt  proposed  that  Prussia  should  restore  the  monarchy." 
Volumes  could  be  written  about  these  false  reports  alone. 

231 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

The  week  of  terror  had  practically  ended.  There  was  still 
some  sniping  from  housetops  and  some  looting,  but  organ- 
ized resistance  had  been  crushed.  Liebknecht  and  Rosa  Lux- 
emburg had  gone  into  hiding.  Liebknecht's  seventeen-year- 
old  son  and  sister  had  been  arrested.  Ledebour,  more  cou- 
rageous or,  perhaps,  more  confident  that  a  veteran  Genosse 
had  nothing  to  fear  from  a  Socialist  government,  remained 
and  was  arrested. 

It  had  been  no  part  of  the  cabinet's  plan  or  desire  to  have 
their  veteran  colleague  of  former  days  arrested.  On  Jan- 
uary 1 2th  the  writer,  speaking  with  one  of  the  most  promi- 
nent Majority  Socialist  leaders,  said : 

"You  can  now  hardly  avoid  having  Ledebour  locked  up." 

The  man  addressed  shrugged  his  shoulders  reflectively 
and  answered: 

"Well,  you  see,  Herr  Kollege,  we  can't  very  well  do  so. 
Ledebour  is  an  old  comrade,  he  was  for  many  years  one  of 
the  party's  secretaries  and  has  done  great  services  for  the 
party." 

"But  he  has  taken  part  in  an  armed  uprising  to  over- 
throw the  government  and  to  destroy  that  same  party/' 
persisted  the  writer.  The  Socialist  leader  admitted  it. 

"But  he  is  acting  from  ideal  motives,"  he  said. 

This  refusal  to  judge  opponents  by  their  acts  but  rather 
by  their  motives  hampered  the  government  throughout  its 
career.  It  is  less  specifically  Socialistic  than  German,  and 
is  the  outgrowth  of  what  is  termed  Rechthaberei  in  German 
an  untranslatable  word  exactly  illustrated  by  the  colloquy 
reported  above.  It  is  not  the  least  among  the  mental  traits 
that  make  it  impossible  for  the  average  German  ever  to  be- 
come what  is  popularly  known  as  a  practical  politician ;  a 
trait  that  kept  the  German  people  in  their  condition  of  politi- 
cal immaturity. 

In  Ledebour's  case,  however,  the  government  found  it- 
self compelled  to  act  drastically.  A  proclamation  was  found 
which  declared  the  government  deposed  and  taken  over 
temporarily  by  the  three  men  who  signed  it.  These  were 
Liebknecht,  Ledebour  and  another  Independent  Socialist 
named  Scholtze.  In  the  first  days  of  the  uprising  they  had 

232 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

sent  a  detachment  of  Spartacans  to  the  War  Ministry  to  pre- 
sent the  proclamation  and  take  charge  of  that  department's 
affairs,  and  only  the  presence  of  mind  and  courage  of  a 
young  officer  had  prevented  the  scheme  from  succeeding. 
In  the  face  of  this,  no  government  that  demanded  respect 
for  its  authority  could  permit  Ledebour  to  remain  at  liberty. 
His  arrest  was  nevertheless  the  signal  for  some  adverse  crit- 
icism even  from  Majority  Socialists  whose  class-conscious 
solidarity  was  greater  than  their  intelligence. 

Liebknecht  was  still  in  hiding,  but  it  was  less  easy  to 
hide  in  Berlin  than  it  had  been  a  month  earlier,  for  the  old 
criminal  police  were  at  work  again.  The  experiment  with 
soldier-policemen  had  resulted  so  disastrously  that  every 
Berliner  who  had  anything  to  lose  welcomed  the  return  of 
these  men  who  had  been  so  denounced  and  hated  in  other 
days.  The  search  lasted  but  two  days.  On  January  15th 
Liebknecht's  apartment  was  searched,  and  great  amounts 
of  propagandist  pamphlets  and  correspondence  showing 
him  to  be  in  constant  touch  with  the  Russian  Soviet  Govern- 
ment were  found.  On  the  evening  of  the  next  day  policemen 
and  soldiers  surrounded  the  house  of  a  distant  relative  of 
Liebknecht's  wife  in  the  western  part  of  the  city  and  Lieb- 
knecht was  found.  He  denied  his  identity  at  first,  but  finally 
admitted  that  he  was  the  man  wanted. 

He  was  taken  to  the  Eden  Hotel  in  Charlottenburg,  which 
had  been  occupied  in  part  by  the  staff  of  the  government 
troops.  Rosa  Luxemburg,  found  hiding  in  another  house, 
was  brought  to  the  hotel  at  the  same  time.  After  the  two 
had  been  questioned,  preparations  were  made  to  take  them 
to  the  city  prison  in  Moabit. 

Despite  all  precautions,  nev/s  of  the  arrests  had  transpired, 
and  the  hotel  was  surrounded  by  a  vast  crowd,  mainly  made 
up  of  better  class  citizens,  since  the  district  where  the  hotel 
is  situated  is  one  of  the  best  residential  districts  of  Greater 
Berlin.  The  feeling  of  these  people  against  the  two  persons 
who  were  in  so  great  measure  responsible  for  the  terrors  of 
the  week  just  past  naturally  ran  high.  The  appearance  of  the 
soldiers  guarding  the  two  was  the  signal  for  a  wild  rush.^ 

233 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

The  Luxemburg  woman  was  struck  repeatedly  and  Lieb- 
knecht  received  a  blow  on  the  head  which  caused  a  bloody 
wound. 

Neither  the  man  nor  woman  ever  reached  prison.  Sol- 
diers brought  to  the  morgue  late  that  night  the  body  of  "an 
unidentified  man,"  alleged  to  have  been  shot  while  running 
away  from  his  guards.  One  bullet  had  struck  him  between 
the  shoulders  and  another  in  the  middle  of  the  back  of  the 
neck.  The  woman  disappeared  utterly. 

On  the  following  day  (January  i6th)  it  became  known 
that  both  Liebknecht  and  Luxemburg  had  been  killed.  Ex- 
actly who  fired  the  fatal  shots  was  never  clearly  established, 
but  an  investigation  did  establish  that  the  officers  in  charge 
of  the  men  guarding  the  two  prisoners  were  guilty  of  a  neg- 
ligence which  was  undoubtedly  deliberate,  and  intended 
to  make  the  killings  possible. 

The  impression  was  profound.  The  Deutsche  Tageszeit- 
ung,  while  deploring  lynch  law  and  summary  justice,  de- 
clared that  the  deaths  of  the  two  agitators  must  be  regarded 
as  "almost  a  Divine  judgment."  This  was  the  tenor  of  all 
bourgeois  comment,  and  even  Vorwdrts  admitted  that  the 
dead  man  and  woman  had  fallen  as  victims  of  the  base  pas- 
sions which  they  themselves  had  aroused.  They  had  sum- 
moned up  spirits  which  they  could  not  exorcise.  There  was 
nevertheless  much  apprehension  regarding  the  form  which 
the  vengeance  of  the  victims'  followers  might  take,  but  this 
confined  itself  in  the  main  to  verbal  attacks  on  the  bour- 
geoisie and  Majority  Socialists,  and  denunciation  of  Noske's 
"White  Guard,"  as  the  loyal  soldiers  who  protected  the  law- 
abiding  part  of  the  population  were  termed.  Disorders  were 
feared  on  the  day  of  Liebknecht's  funeral,  but  none  came. 

The  government  gained  a  much  needed  breathing  spell 
through  these  events.  With  Liebknecht  and  Luxemburg 
dead,  Radek  in  hiding,  Ledebour  locked  up  and  Eichhorn 
— as  it  transpired  later — fled  to  Brunswick,  the  Spartacans, 
deprived  of  their  most  energetic  leaders  and  shaken  by  their 
bloody  losses  of  Bolshevik  week,  could  not  so  quickly  rally 
their  forces  for  another  coup.  Their  losses  are  not  definitely 
known,  but  they  were  estimated  at  approximately  two  hun- 

234 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

dred  dead  and  nearly  a  thousand  wounded.  The  losses  of  the 
government  troops  were  negligible. 

Noske,  who  had  taken  over  from  Ebert  the  administra- 
tion of  military  affairs,  announced  that  there  would  be  no 
further  temporizing  with  persons  endeavoring  to  overthrow 
the  government  by  force.  He  issued  a  decree  setting  forth 
the  duty  of  the  soldiers  to  preserve  order,  protect  property 
and  defend  themselves   in  all  circumstances. 

The  decree  said  further: 

"No  soldier  can  be  excused  for  failure  to  perform  his 
duty  if  he  have  not,  in  the  cases  specified  above,  made  timely 
and  adequate  use  of  his  weapons  to  attain  the  purpose  set 
forth." 

Some  six  years  earlier  Police-President  von  Jagow  had 
brought  a  flood  of  Socialist  abuse  on  his  head  because,  in  a 
general  order  to  the  police,  he  referred  to  the  fact  that  there 
had  been  an  unusual  number  of  escapes  of  criminals  and  at- 
tacks on  policemen  and  added :  ''Henceforth  I  shall  punish 
any  policeman  who  in  such  case  has  failed  to  make  timely 
use  of  his  weapons."  And  now  a  Socialist  issued  an  order  of 
much  the  same  tenor.  The  Genossen  had  learned  by  bitter 
experience  that  there  is  a  difference  between  criticizing  and 
governing,  and  that  moral  suasion  occasionally  fails  with 
the  lowest  elements  of  a  great  city. 

Defeated  in  Berlin,  the  Bolsheviki  turned  their  attention 
to  the  coast  cities.  The  "Republic  of  Cuxhaven"  was  pro- 
claimed, with  a  school-teacher  as  president.  It  collapsed  in 
five  days  as  a  result  of  the  government's  decisive  action.  An 
attempted  coup  in  Bremen  also  failed,  but  both  these  upris- 
ings left  the  Spartacans  and  Independents  of  these  cities  in 
possession  of  large  supplies  of  arms  and  ammunition. 

January  i8th,  the  forty-seventh  anniversary  of  the 
founding  of  the  German  Empire,  brought  melancholy  re- 
flections for  all  Germans.  The  Bolshevist-hued  Socialists 
were  impotently  raging  in  defeat;  the  bourgeoisie  la- 
mented past  glories;  the  Majority  Socialists  were  under  a 
crossfire  from  both  sides.  The  Conservative  Kreuz-Zeitung 
wrote : 

"January  i8th:  What  feelings  are  awakened  on  this  day 

235 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

under  prevailing  conditions !  In  other  times  we  celebrated 
today  the  Empire's  glory,  its  resurrection  from  impotence 
and  dissension  to  unity  and  strength.  We  believed  its  ex- 
istence and  power  assured  for  centuries.  And  today?  After 
less  than  half  a  century  the  old  misery  has  come  upon  us  and 
has  cast  us  down  lower  than  ever.  This  time,  too,  Germany 
could  be  conquered  only  because  it  was  disunited.  In  the 
last  analysis  it  was  from  the  Social-Democratic  poison  of 
Internationalism  and  negation  of  state  that  the  Empire  be- 
came infected  and  defenseless.  How  painfully  wrong  were 
those  who,  in  smiling  optimism,  ever  made  light  of  all  warn- 
ings against  the  Social-Democratic  danger.  It  will  be  our 
real  danger  in  the  future  also.  If  we  do  not  overcome  the 
Social-Democratic  spirit  among  our  people  we  cannot  re- 
cover our  health." 

The  Kreuz-Zeitung's  diagnosis  was  correct,  but  it  had 
required  a  national  post-mortem  to  establish  it. 


236 


CHAPTER  XVI. 
The  National  Assembly. 

IN  preparation  for  the  National  Assembly,  the  various  ex- 
isting political  parties  effected  generally  a  sweeping  re- 
organization, which  included,  for  the  most  part,  changes 
of  designations  as  well.  The  Conservatives  and  Free  Con- 
servatives coalesced  as  The  German  National  People's  Party 
{Deutsch-nationale  V oiks p art ei)  .The.  right  wing  of  the  Na- 
tional-Liberals, under  the  leadership  of  Dr.  Stresemann, 
became  the  German  People's  Party  {Deutsche  Volkspartei). 
The  left  wing  of  the  old  party,  under  the  leadership  of 
Baron  von  Richthofen  joined  with  the  former  Progressives 
{Fortschrittliche  Volkspartei)  to  form  the  German  Demo- 
cratic Party  {Deutsch-demokratische  Partei).  The  Clericals 
retained  their  party  solidarity  but  christened  themselves 
German  Christian  Party  {Deutsch-Christliche  Partei).  The 
Majority  and  Independent  Socialists  retained  their  old  or- 
ganizations and  party  designations.  The  Spartacans,  as  out- 
spoken enemies  of  any  national  assembly,  could  not  consist- 
ently have  anything  to  do  with  it  and  placed  no  ticket  in 
the  field.  Most  of  the  Independent  Socialists  were  also  op- 
ponents of  a  constituent  assembly,  but  the  party  organization 
was  still  trying  to  blow  both  hot  and  cold  and  had  not  yet 
gone  on  record  officially  as  favoring  a  soviet  government  and 
the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat. 

Of  the  parties  as  reorganized,  the  National  People's  and 
the  People's  parties  were  monarchic.  The  Christian  Party 
(Clericals)  contained  many  men  who  believed  a  limited 
monarchy  to  be  the  best  form  of  government  for  Germany, 
but  as  a  whole  the  party  was  democratically  inclined  and 
out  of  sympathy  with  any  attempt  at  that  time  to  restore  the 

237 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

monarchy.  The  two  Socialist  parties  were,  of  course,  advo- 
cates of  a  republic  and  bitter  opponents  of  monarchs  and 
monarchies. 

The  Democratic  Party  came  into  existence  mainly 
through  the  efforts  of  Theodor  Wolff,  the  brilliant  editor 
of  the  Berlin  Tagehlatt.  No  other  non-Socialist  editor  re- 
alized so  early  or  so  completely  as  Wolff  whither  the  policy 
of  the  old  government  was  taking  Germany.  He  had  op- 
posed the  submarine  warfare,  condemned  the  treaty  of 
Brest- Litovsk,  attacked  the  methods  and  influence  of  the 
pan-Germans  and  constantly  advocated  drastic  democratic 
reforms.  Probably  no  other  bourgeois  newspaper  had  been 
so  often  suppressed  as  the  Tageblatt,  and  it  shared  with  So- 
cialist organs  the  distinction  of  being  prohibited  in  many 
army  units  and  in  some  military  departments  at  home.  Al- 
though Wolff  held  no  political  office,  his  influence  in  the 
Progressive  Party  and  with  the  left  wing  of  the  National- 
Liberals  was  great,  and  even  many  Socialists  regularly  read 
his  leading  articles,  which  were  more  often  cabled  to  Amer- 
ica than  were  the  editorials  of  any  other  German  publicist, 
not  excepting  even  the  poseur  Maximilian  Harden-Wit- 
kowski. 

The  revolution  was  hardly  an  accomplished  fact  before 
Wolff  saw  the  necessity  for  a  democratic,  non-Socialist  po- 
litical party  which  must  be  free  of  elements  compromised 
in  any  manner  by  participation  in  the  old  government  or  by 
support  of  its  militaristic  and  imperialistic  policies.  He  took 
it  upon  himself  to  issue  the  summons  for  the  formation  of 
such  a  party.  The  response  was  immediate  and  gratifying. 
Help  came  even  from  unexpected  quarters.  Prince  Lich- 
nowsky,  former  Ambassador  to  Great  Britain ;  Count  Brock- 
dorff-Rantzau,  who  had  succeeded  Dr.  Solf  as  Foreign  Min- 
ister; Baron  von  Richthofen  of  the  National-Liberals, 
Count  Johannes  Bernstorff,  former  Ambassador  to  the 
United  States,  and  many  other  prominent  members  of  the 
higher   German   nobility^   joined   with   bourgeois   political 

*A  surprisingly  large  number  of  Americans  cannot  or  will  not  believe  that 
a  prince  or  a  count  can  be  a  real  democrat.  This  is  plainly  due  to  a  too  prev- 
alent confusion  of  the  words  democratic  with  republican.  All  republics  are, 

238 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

leaders  to  organize  the  new  party.  Not  all  compromised  ele- 
ments could  be  kept  out  of  the  party,  but  they  were  excluded 
from  any  active  participation  in  the  conduct  of  its  affairs  or 
the  shaping  of  its  policies. 

Taken  as  a  whole,  the  party  stood  far  to  the  left.  Wolff, 
at  the  extreme  left  of  his  organization,  might  be  described 
either  as  a  bourgeois  Socialist  or  a  Socialistic  bourgeois  poli- 
tician. The  recruits  from  the  former  National- Liberal  Party 
were  less  radical,  but  even  they  subscribed  to  a  platform 
which  called  for  the  nationalization  (socialization)  of  a 
long  list  of  essential  industries,  notably  mines  and  water  and 
electrical  power,  and,  in  general,  for  sweeping  economic  re- 
forms and  the  most  direct  participation  of  the  people  in  the 
government.  The  fact  that  the  new  party  was  chiefly  financed 
by  big  Jewish  capitalists  caused  it  to  be  attacked  by  anti- 
Semites  and  proletarians  alike,  but  this  detracted  little  from 
its  strength  at  the  polls,  since  Germany's  anti-Semites  were 
never  found  in  any  considerable  numbers  among  the 
bourgeois  parties  of  the  Left,  and  the  proletarians  were 
already  for  the  most  part  adherents  of  one  of  the  Socialist 
factions. 

The  campaign  for  the  elections  to  the  National  Assembly 
was  conducted  with  great  energy  and  equally  great  bit- 
terness by  all  parties.  Despite  an  alleged  shortage  of  paper 
which  had  for  months  made  it  impossible  for  the  newspapers 
to  print  more  than  a  small  part  of  the  advertisements  sub- 
mitted to  them,  tons  of  paper  were  used  for  handbills  and 
placards.  The  streets,  already  filthy  enough,  were  strewn 
ankle-deep  in  places  with  appeals  for  this  or  that  party 
and  vilifications  of  opponents.  Aeroplanes  dropped  thou- 
sands of  dodgers  over  the  chief  cities.  New  daily  papers, 
most  of  them  unlovely  excrescences  on  the  body  of  the  press, 
made  their  appearance  and  secured  paper  grants  for  their 
consumption. 

One  feature  of  the  campaign  illustrated  strikingly  what 

in  theory  at  least,  democratic,  but  a  monarchist  can  consistently  be  a  demo- 
crat. The  two  most  democratic  countries  in  the  world  are  Denmark  and  Nor- 
way, yet  both  are  kingdoms.  The  democratic  sentiments  of  the  men  named 
above,  with  the  possible  exception  of  one,  were  of  no  recent  growth ;  they 
long  antedated  the  revolution. 

239 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

had  already  been  clear  to  dispassionate  observers :  Ger- 
many's new  government  was  unashamedly  a  party  govern- 
ment first  and  a  general  government  second.  Majority  So- 
cialist election  posters  were  placed  in  public  buildings,  rail- 
way stations,  etc.,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  parties.  Its 
handbills  were  distributed  by  government  employees  and 
from  government  automobiles  and  aeroplanes.  The  bourgeois 
Hallesche  Zeitung's  paper  supply  was  cut  in  half  in  order 
that  the  n^vj^OQAdXi-sXV olkszeitung  might  be  established,  and 
its  protest  was  dismissed  by  the  Soldiers'  Council  with  the 
statement  that  the  V olkszeitung  was  "more  important."  Not 
even  the  most  reactionary  of  the  old  German  governments 
would  have  dared  abuse  its  power  in  this  manner.  It  may  be 
doubted  whether  the  revolutionary  government  was  at  all 
conscious  of  the  impropriety  of  its  course,  but  even  if  it  had 
been  it  would  have  made  no  difference.  One  of  the  great 
sources  of  strength  of  Socialism  is  its  conviction  that  all 
means  are  sacred  for  the  furtherance  of  the  class  struggle. 

The  Spartacans  had  boasted  that  the  elections  would  not 
be  permitted  to  be  held,  but  the  decided  attitude  of  the  gov- 
ernment made  their  boast  an  empty  one.  Soldiers  in  steel  hel- 
mets, their  belts  filled  with  hand-grenades  and  carrying 
rifles  with  fixed  bayonets,  guarded  the  polling  places  where- 
ever  trouble  was  expected.  In  Hamburg  the  ballot-boxes 
were  burned,  and  reports  of  disorders  came  from  two  or 
three  small  districts  elsewhere,  but  the  election  as  a  whole 
was  quietly  and  honestly  conducted.  Election  day  in  Man- 
hattan has  often  seen  more  disorders  than  were  reported 
from  all  Germany  on  January  19th. 

The  result  of  the  election  contained  no  surprises;  it  was, 
in  general,  practically  what  had  been  forecast  by  the  best 
observers.  The  Majority  Socialists,  who  had  hoped  for  an 
absolute  majority  but  had  not  expected  it,  polled  about  43 
per  cent  of  the  total  popular  vote  and  secured  163  dele- 
gates to  the  National  Convention.  This  was  an  increase  of 
nearly  8  per  cent  since  the  last  general  election  of  19 1 2. 
The  Independent  Socialists  demonstrated  considerable 
strength  in  Greater  Berlin,  but  only  one  in  every  twenty- 
five  of  the  whole  country's  voters  supported  them  and  only 

240 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

twenty-two  of  their  followers  were  elected.  Kurt  Eisner, 
Minister-President  of  Bavaria,  failed  of  election  although 
his  name  was  on  the  ticket  in  more  than  twenty  election  dis- 
tricts. 

The  total  membership  of  the  National  Convention  was  to 
have  been  433  delegates,  but  the  French  authorities  in 
charge  of  the  troops  occupying  Alsace-Lorraine  refused  to 
permit  elections  to  be  held  there,  which  reduced  the  assem- 
bly's membership  to  421.  A  majority  was  thus  211,  and  the 
two  Socialist  parties,  with  a  combined  total  of  185,  could 
accomplish  nothing  without  26  additional  votes  from 
some  bourgeois  party.  As  it  later  developed,  moreover,  the 
government  party  could  count  on  the  support  of  the  Inde- 
pendents only  in  matters  where  Socialist  solidarity  was  sen- 
timentally involved;  on  matters  affecting  economic  policies 
there  was  much  more  kinship  between  the  Majority  Social- 
ists and  the  Democrats  than  between  them  and  the  follow- 
ers of  Haase. 

The  Democrats,  with  75  delegates,  were  the  second 
strongest  non-Socialist  party,  the  former  Clericals  having 
88.  By  virtue  of  their  position  midway  between  Right 
and  Left  they  held  the  real  balance  of  power. 

The  National  People's  Party,  the  former  Conservatives 
and  Free  Conservatives,  made  a  surprisingly  good  showing 
in  the  elections,  securing  42  delegates.  This  number,  how- 
ever, included  the  delegates  of  the  Middle  and  the  National- 
Liberal  parties  of  Bavaria  and  the  Citizens'  Party  and  Peas- 
ants' and  Vineyardists'  League  of  Wiirttemberg.  The  rem- 
nant of  the  old  National-Liberal  Party  was  able  to  elect 
only  21  delegates. 

There  were,  in  addition  to  the  parties  enumerated,  the 
Bavarian  Peasants'  League  with  4  delegates,  the  Schles- 
wig-Holstein  Peasants'  and  Farm-Laborers'  Democratic 
League  with  I  delegate,  the  Brunswick  State  Election  As- 
sociation with  i  andthe German-Hanoverian  Party  (Guelphs) 
with  4  delegates.  Not  even  the  urgent  need  of  uniting 
dissevered  elements  so  far  as  possible  could  conquer  the  old 
German  tendency  to  carry  metaphysical  hairsplitting  into 
politics.  The  German  Reichstags  regularly  had  from  twelve 

241 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

to  sixteen  different  parties,  and  even  then  there  were  gen- 
erally two  or  three  delegates  who  found  themselves  unable 
to  agree  with  the  tenets  of  any  one  of  these  parties  and  re- 
mained unattached,  the  "wild  delegates"  {die  Wilden),  as 
they  were  termed.  There  were  ten  parties  in  the  National 
Assembly,  and  one  of  these,  as  has  been  said,  was  a  com- 
bination of  five  parties. 

Democracy  had  an  overwhelming  majority  in  the  assem- 
bly. The  Majority  Socialists  and  Democrats  together  had  a 
clear  joint  majority  of  27  votes,  and  the  Clericals'  strength 
included  many  democratic  delegates.  No  fewer  than  eight  of 
the  party's  delegates  were  secretaries  of  labor  unions.  Thir- 
ty-four women,  the  greatest  number  ever  chosen  to  any 
country's  parliament,  were  elected  as  delegates.  The  Major- 
ity Socialists,  the  original  advocates  of  woman's  suffrage 
in  Germany,  fittingly  elected  the  greatest  number  of  these — 
1 5 ;  the  Clericals  were  next  with  7,  the  Democrats  elected 
5,  the  Conservatives  4,  and  the  Independent  Socialists  3. 

The  government  announced  that  the  National  Assembly 
would  be  held  in  Weimar  on  February  6th.  Hardly  a  fort- 
night had  passed  since  the  first  "Bolshevik  week,"  and  the 
cabinet  feared  disorders,  if  nothing  worse,  if  an  attempt  were 
made  to  hold  the  assembly  in  Berlin.  It  was  also  easier  to  af- 
ford adequate  protection  in  a  city  of  thirty-five  thousand 
than  in  the  capital.  Although  it  was  never  declared  in  so 
many  words,  it  is  probable  that  a  sentimental  reason  also 
played  a  part  in  the  choice.  There  was  no  taint  of  Prussianism 
about  Weimar.  As  the  "intellectual  capital  of  Germany"  it 
has  an  aura  possessed  by  no  other  German  city.  Goethe, 
Schiller  and  Herder  spent  the  greater  part  of  their  lives  in 
this  little  Thuringian  city  and  are  buried  there.  It  has  given 
shelter  to  many  other  men  whose  names  are  revered  by  edu- 
cated people  the  world  over.  It  is  reminiscent  of  days  when 
militarism  and  imperialism  had  not  yet  corrupted  a  "people 
of  thinkers  and  dreamers,"  of  days  when  culture  had  not 
yet  given  way  to  Kultur,  of  days  before  a  simple,  indus- 
trious people  had  been  converted  to  a  belief  in  their  mis- 
sion to  impose  the  ideals  of  Preusscn-Deutschland  upon  the 
world  with  "the  mailed  fist"  and  "in  shining  armor."  It  is 

242 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

characteristic  that  men  in  high  places  believed — and  they 
undoubtedly  did  believe — that  a  recollection  of  these  things 
could  in  some  way  redound  to  the  benefit  of  Germany. 

The  days  between  the  elections  and  the  convening  of  the 
National  Assembly  brought  further  serious  complications 
in  Germany's  domestic  situation.  Disaffection  among  the 
soldiers  was  increased  by  an  order  of  Colonel  Reinhardt, 
the  new  Minister  of  War,  defining  the  respective  powers  of 
officers'  and  the  soldiers'  councils.  The  order  declared  that 
the  power  of  command  remained  with  the  officers  in  all  mat- 
ters affecting  tactics  and  strategy.  The  councils'  functions 
were  confined  to  matters  of  provisioning  and  to  disciplinary 
punishments.  This  order,  although  in  accordance  with  the 
original  decree  of  the  cabinet  regarding  the  matter,  failed 
to  satisfy  men  who  had  become  contemptuous  of  all  authori- 
ty except  their  own. 

The  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Councils  of  the  whole  coun- 
try were  also  disquieted  by  the  announcement  of  the  govern- 
ment that,  with  the  convening  of  the  National  Assembly,  all 
political  power  would  pass  to  the  assembly,  and  revolution- 
ary government  organs  everywhere  and  of  all  kinds  would 
cease  to  exist.  This  was  not  at  all  to  the  taste  of  most  of  the 
members  of  the  Soviets,  who  were  affected  less  by  politi- 
cal considerations  than  by  the  prospect  of  losing  profitable 
sinecures  and  being  compelled  to  earn  a  living  by  honest 
effort.  The  combined  Soviets  of  Greater  Berlin  voted,  492  to 
362,  to  demand  the  retention  of  the  Workmen's  and  Sol- 
diers' Councils  in  any  future  state-form  which  might  be 
adopted.  Other  Soviets  followed  the  example,  and  there  was 
talk  of  holding  a  rival  congress  in  Berlin  contemporaneous- 
ly with  the  sessions  of  the  National  Assembly  in  Weimar. 
The  Spartacans,  already  beginning  to  recover  from  their 
defeats  of  a  few  days  earlier,  began  planning  another  coup 
for  the  first  week  of  February. 

Noske's  troops  were  kept  constantly  in  action.  The  Bol- 
sheviki  in  Wilhelmshaven  staged  an  armed  uprising,  but  it 
was  quickly  put  down.  They  seized  power  in  Bremen,  de- 
fied the  government  to  cast  them  out,  and  several  regiments 
were  required  to  defeat  and  disarm  them.  There  was  rioting 

243 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

in  Magdeburg,  and  also  in  Diisseldorf.  Polish  aggressions, 
particularly  between  Thorn  and  Graudenz,  continued.  It 
was  difficult  to  move  troops  against  them  because  of  the  op- 
position of  the  Independents  and  Spartacans,  and  a  great 
part  of  the  soldiers,  arrived  at  the  front,  refused  to  remain 
and  could  not  be  detained,  since,  under  Socialist  methods, 
they  had  the  right  to  quit  at  any  time  on  giving  a  week's 
notice.  Serious  strikes  further  embarrassed  and  handicapped 
the  government. 

The  determination  and  energy  displayed  by  the  cabinet  in 
these  difficult  days  deserve  generous  acknowledgment,  and 
especially  so  in  view  of  the  fact  that  it  required  a  high  de- 
gree of  moral  courage  for  any  body  of  Socialist  rulers  to 
brave  the  denunciations  of  even  well  meaning  Genossen  by 
relying  on 'armed  force  to  compel  respect  for  their  authority 
and  to  carry  out  the  mandate  given  them  now  by  the  great 
majority  of  the  German  people.  Preparations  for  the  Na- 
tional Assembly  were  well  made.  No  person  was  permitted 
even  to  buy  a  railway  ticket  to  Weimar  unless  he  was  in  pos- 
session of  a  special  pass  bearing  his  photograph,  and  a  de- 
tachment of  picked  troops  was  sent  to  the  city  to  protect  the 
assembly  against  interruption.  Machine-guns  commanded 
all  entrances  to  the  beautiful  National  Theater  which  had 
been  converted  to  the  purposes  of  the  assembly,  and  a  special 
detail  of  experienced  Berlin  policemen  and  plain-clothes 
detectives  was  on  hand  to  assist  the  soldiers. 

The  local  garrisons  of  Weimar,  Eisenach,  Gotha  and 
other  nearby  places  made  a  futile  attempt  to  prevent  the 
sending  of  troops  from  Berlin,  but  never  got  farther  than  the 
beginning.  Their  attitude  was  not  due  to  any  political  con- 
siderations, but  was  dictated  by  selfishness  and  wounded 
pride:  they  insisted  that  the  sending  of  outside  troops  was 
an  insult  to  them,  since  they  could  furnish  all  the  troops 
necessary  to  preserve  order,  and  they  also  felt  that  they  were 
entitled  to  the  extra  pay  and  rations  dealt  out  to  Noske's 
men. 

The  National  Assembly  convened  on  Februry  6th  with 
nearly  a  full  attendance.  It  was  called  to  order  by  Ebert, 
who  appealed  for  unity  and  attacked  the  terms  of  the  No- 

244 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

vember  armistice  and  the  additional  terms  imposed  at  its 
renewals  since.  The  speech  received  the  approval  of  all 
members  of  the  assembly  except  the  Independent  Socialists, 
who  even  on  this  first  day,  started  their  tactics  of  obstruction, 
abuse  of  all  speakers  except  their  own  and  rowdyish  inter- 
ruptions of  the  business  of  the  sessions. 

On  February  7th  Dr.  Eduard  David,  a  scholarly  man 
who  had  been  for  many  years  one  of  the  Majority  Social- 
ists' leaders,  was  elected  president  (speaker)  of  the  National 
Assembly.  The  other  officers  chosen  came  from  the  Chris- 
tian, Democratic  and  Majority  Socialist  parties,  the  extreme 
Right  and  extreme  Left  being  unrepresented.  Organization 
having  been  effected,  a  provisional  constitution  was  adopted 
establishing  the  Assembly  as  a  law-giving  body.  It  provided 
for  the  election  of  a  National  President,  to  serve  until  his 
successor  could  be  elected  at  a  general  election,  and  for  the 
appointment  of  a  Minister-President  and  various  ministers 
of  state.  The  constitution  created  a  so-called  Committee  of 
State,  to  be  named  by  the  various  state  governments  and  to 
occupy  the  position  of  a  Second  Chamber,  and  empowered 
the  assembly  to  enact  "such  national  laws  as  are  urgently 
necessary,"  particularly  revenue  and  appropriation  meas- 
ures. 

Friedrich  Ebert  was  elected  Provisional  President  of  the 
German  Republic  on  February  I  ith  by  a  vote  of  277  out  of  a 
total  of  379  votes.  Hardly  a  decade  earlier  the  German  Em- 
peror had  stigmatized  all  the  members  of  Ebert's  party  as 
vaterlaiidslose  Gesellen  and  as  "men  unworthy  to  bear  the 
name  of  German."  Now,  less  than  three  months  after  that 
monarch  had  been  overthrown,  a  Socialist  was  placed  at  the 
head  of  what  was  left  of  the  German  Empire.  A  young  and 
inconsequential  Prussian  lieutenant  had  six  years  earlier  been 
refused  permission  to  marry  the  girl  of  his  choice  because 
her  mother  sold  eggs.  The  new  President  of  the  country 
had  been  a  saddler.  He  had  once  even  been  the  owner  of  a 
small  inn  in  Hamburg. 

Ebert  belongs  to  that  class  which  the  French  call  the  petite 
bourgeoisie,  the  lower  middle  class.  He  possesses  all  the 
solid,   domestic  virtues  of  this  class,   and  is  a  living  ex- 

245 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

emplification  of  old  copy-book  maxims  about  honesty  as  the 
best  policy  and  faithfulness  in  little  things.  Without  a  trace 
of  brilliancy  and  without  any  unusual  mental  qualities,  his 
greatest  strength  lies  in  an  honesty  and  dependability  which, 
in  the  long  run,  so  often  outweigh  great  mental  gifts.  Few 
political  leaders  have  ever  enjoyed  the  confidence  and  trust 
of  their  followers  to  a  greater  degree. 

The  ministry  chosen  was  headed  by  Scheidemann  as  Min- 
ister-President. Other  members  were :  Minister  of  Defense 
(army  and  navy),  Noske;  Interior,  Hugo  Preuss;  Justice, 
Sendsberg;  Commerce,  Hermann  Miiller;  Labor,  Bauer; 
Foreign  Affairs,  Count  Brockdorff-Rantzau ;  Under-Sec- 
retary for  Foreign  Affairs,  Baron  von  Richthofen ;  Finance, 
Dr.  Schiffer;  Posts  and  Telegraphs,  Geisberg.  Erzberger, 
David  and  Wissell  were  made  ministers  without  portfolio. 

The  first  sessions  of  the  National  Assembly  made  on  the 
whole  a  good  impression.  The  members  were  for  the  most 
part  earnest  men  and  women,  fully  up  to  the  intellectual 
average  of  legislative  bodies  anywhere;  there  were  com- 
paratively few  among  them  who  were  compromised  by  re- 
lations with  the  old  government,  and  these  were  not  in  a  posi- 
tion to  do  no  harm.  The  extreme  Right  was  openly  mo- 
narchic, but  the  members  of  this  group  realized  fully  the 
hopelessness  of  any  attempt  to  restore  either  the  Hohenzol- 
lerns  or  a  monarchic  state-form  at  this  time,  and  manifested 
their  loyalty  to  the  former  ruler  only  by  objecting  vigor- 
ously to  Social- Democratic  attacks  on  the  Kaiser  or  to  de- 
preciation of  the  services  of  the  crown  in  building  up  the 
Empire.  Apart  from  the  pathologically  hysterical  conduct 
of  the  Independent  Socialists,  and  particularly  of  the  three 
women  delegates  of  that  party,  the  assembly's  proceedings 
were  carried  on  in  what  was,  by  European  parliamentary 
standards,  a  dignified  manner. 

From  the  very  beginning,  however,  the  proceedings  were 
sicklied  o'er  by  the  pale  cast  of  care.  After  the  sufferings  and 
losses  of  more  than  four  years  of  war,  the  country  was  now 
rent  by  internal  dissensions  and  fratricidal  strife.  To  the  costs 
of  war  had  been  added  hundreds  of  millions  lost  to  the  state 
through  the  extravagance,   dishonesty  or  incompetence  of 

246 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

revolutionary  officials  and  particularly  Soviets.  The  former 
net  earnings  of  the  state  railways  of  nearly  a  billion  marks 
had  been  converted  into  a  deficit  of  two  billions.  Available 
sources  of  revenue  had  been  almost  exhausted.  The  German 
currency  had  depreciated  more  than  sixty  per  cent.  Indus- 
try was  everywhere  crippled  by  senseless  strikes. 

An  insight  into  Germany's  financial  situation  was  given 
by  the  report  of  Finance  Minister  Schiffer,  who  disclosed 
that  the  prodigious  sum  of  nineteen  billion  marks  would  be 
required  in  the  coming  year  to  pay  interest  charges  alone. 
The  war,  he  declared,  had  cost  Germany  one  hundred  and 
sixty-one  billion  marks,  which  exceeded  by  nearly  fourteen 
billions  the  credits  that  had  been  granted. 

The  incubus  of  the  terrible  armistice  terrns  rested  up- 
on the  assembly.  Enemy  newspapers,  especially  those  of 
Paris,  were  daily  publishing  estimates  of  indemnities  to  be 
demanded  from  Germany,  and  the  most  modest  of  these  far 
exceeded  Germany's  total  wealth  of  all  descriptions.  Naive 
German  editors  faithfully  republished  these  articles,  failing 
to  realize  that  they  were  part  of  the  enemy  propaganda  and 
designed  further  to  weaken  the  Germans'  morale  and  in- 
crease their  feeling  of  helplessness  and  despondency.  Not 
even  the  fiercest  German  patriots  and  loyalists  of  the  old 
school  could  entirely  shake  off  the  feeling  of  helplessness 
that  overshadowed  and  influenced  every  act  of  the  National 
Assembly. 

The  Majority  Socialists  had  come  to  realize  more  fully 
the  difference  between  theory  and  practice.  The  official  organ 
of  the  German  Federation  of  Labor  had  discovered  a  week 
earlier  that  "the  socialistic  conquests  of  the  revolution  can 
be  maintained  only  if  countries  competing  with  German 
industry  adopt  similar  institutions."  There  were  already 
concrete  proofs  available  that  socialization,  even  without 
regard  to  foreign  competition,  was  not  practical  under  the 
conditions  prevailing  in  the  country.  At  least  two  large  fac- 
tory owners  in  Northern  Germany  had  handed  their  plants 
over  to  their  workmen  and  asked  them  to  take  full  charge 
of  manufacture  and  sale.  In  both  instances  the  workmen  had, 
after  a  trial,  requested  the  owners  to  resume  charge  of  the 
factories. 

247 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

How  shall  we  socialize  when  there  is  nothing  to  social- 
ize? asked  thoughtful  men.  The  answer  was  obvious.  Gegeti 
den  Tod  ist  kein  Kraut  gewachseyi  (there  is  no  remedy 
against  death)  says  an  old  German  proverb,  and  industry 
was  practically  dead.  The  government  party  now  discovered 
what  Marx  and  Engels  had  discovered  nearly  fifty  years  be- 
fore. 

"The  practical  application  of  these  principles  will  always 
and  everywhere  depend  upon  historically  existing  condir 
tions.  *  *  *  The  Commune  has  supplied  the  proof  that  the 
laboring  class  cannot  simply  take  possession  of  the  machin- 
ery of  state  and  set  it  in  motion  for  its  own  purposes."^ 

The  tardy  realization  of  this  fact  placed  the  delegates  of 
the  government  party  in  a  serious  dilemma.  Sweeping  so- 
cialization had  been  promised,  and  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
party  expected  and  demanded  it.  In  these  circumstances  it 
was  obvious  that  a  failure  to  carry  out  what  was  at  the  same 
time  a  party  doctrine  and  a  campaign  pledge  would  have 
serious  consequences,  and  it  must  be  reckoned  to  the  credit 
of  the  leaders  of  the  party  that  they  put  the  material  wel- 
fare of  the  state  above  party  considerations  and  refused  to 
let  themselves  be  hurried  into  disastrous  experiments  along 
untried  lines.  Their  attitude  resulted  in  driving  many  of  the 
members  of  the  Socialist  party  into  the  ranks  of  the  Inde- 
pendents, but  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  government  never- 
theless remained  strong  enough  to  defeat  these  elements 
wherever  they  had  recourse  to  violence,  and  of  the  further 
fact  that  to  accede  to  the  demands  of  these  intransigents 
would  have  given  the  final  blow  to  what  little  remained  of 
German  industry,  the  leaders  must  be  said  to  have  acted 
wisely  and  patriotically. 

With  organization  effected,  the  National  Assembly  set- 
tled down  to  work.  But  it  was  work  as  all  similar  German 
organizations  in  history  had  always  understood  it.  All  the 
political  immaturity,  the  tendency  to  philosophical  and  ab- 
stract reasoning,  the  ineradicable  devotion  to  the  merely 
academic  and  the  disregard  of  practical  questions  that  are 

^Introduction  to  the  second  edition  of  the  Manifesto  of  1849,  quoted  in 
chapter  iii. 

248 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

such  prominent  characteristics  of  the  people  were  exhibited 
just  as  they  had  been  at  the  Congress  at  Frankfort-on-the- 
Main  seventy  years  earlier.  It  has  been  written  of  that  Con- 
gress : 

"But  the  Germans  had  had  no  experience  of  free  political 
life.  Nearly  every  deputy  had  his  own  theory  of  the  course 
which  ought  to  be  pursued,  and  felt  sure  that  the  country 
would  go  to  ruin  if  it  were  not  adopted.  Learned  professors 
and  talkative  journalists  insisted  on  delivering  interminable 
speeches  and  on  examining  in  the  light  of  ultimate  philo- 
sophical principles  every  proposal  laid  before  the  assembly. 
Thus  precious  time  was  lost,  violent  antagonisms  were  called 
forth,  the  patience  of  the  nation  was  exhausted,  and  the  re- 
actionary forces  were  able  to  gather  strength  for  once  more 
asserting  themselves."-^ 

Except  that  the  reactionary  forces  were  too  weakly  rep- 
resented at  Weimar  to  make  them  an  actual  source  of  danger 
this  characterization  of  the  Frankfort  Congress  might  have 
been  written  about  the  proceedings  of  the  National  Assem- 
bly of  February.  It  is  a  significant  and  illuminating  fact  that 
the  greatest  animation  exhibited  at  any  time  during  the  first 
week  of  the  assembly  was  aroused  by  a  diff'erence  of  mean- 
ing as  to  the  definition  of  a  word.  Professor  Hugo  Preuss, 
Prussian  Minister  of  the  Interior,  to  whom  had  been  en- 
trusted the  task  of  drafting  a  proposed  constitution  for  the 
new  republic,  referred  in  a  speech  elucidating  it,  to  "an 
absolute  majority." 

"Does  'absolute  majority'  mean  a  majority  of  the  whole 
number  of  delegates?"  asked  some  learned  delegate. 

The  other  delegates  were  galvanized  instantly  into  the 
tensest  interest.  Here  was  a  question  worth  while!  What 
doe?  "absolute  majority"  mean?  An  animated  debate  fol- 
lowed and  was  listened  to  with  a  breathless  interest  which 
the  most  weighty  financial  or  economic  questions  had  never 
succeeded  in  evoking. 

And  while  the  National  Assembly  droned  thus  wearily 
on,  clouds  were  again  gathering  over  Berlin  and  other  cities 
in  the  troubled  young  republic. 

^Encyclopedia  Britaniiica,  title  "Germany." 

249 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

The  Spartacans  Rise  Again. 

ARTICLE  xxvi  of  the  armistice  of  November  i  ith  de- 
clared : 
L      'The  Allies  and  the  United  States  have  in  view  the 
provisioning  of  Germany  during  the  armistice  to  the  extent 
deemed  necessary."^ 

Even  by  the  end  of  November  it  had  become  apparent  to 
all  intelligent  observers  on  the  ground  and  to  many  outside 
Germany  that  such  provisioning  was  urgently  necessary, 
and  that  if  it  did  not  come  at  once  the  result  would  be  a 
spread  of  Bolshevism  which  would  endanger  all  Europe. 
Allied  journalists  in  Germany  were  almost  a  unit  in  recog- 
nizing the  dangers  and  dem'ands  of  the  situation,  but  they 
were  greatly  hampered  in  their  efforts  to  picture  the  situa- 
tion truthfully  by  the  sentiments  prevailing  in  their  re- 
spective countries  as  a  result  of  the  passions  engendered  by 
the  conflict  so  lately  ended.  This  was  in  the  highest  degree 
true  as  to  the  Americans,  which  was  especially  regrettable 
and  unfortunate  in  view  of  the  fact  that  America  was  the 
only  power  possessing  a  surplus  of  immediately  available 
foodstuffs.  American  correspondents,  venturing  to  report 
actual  conditions  in  Germany,  found  themselves  denounced 
as  "pro- Germans"  and  traitors  by  the  readers  of  their 
papers.  More  than  this :  they  became  the  objects  of  unfavor- 
able reports  by  officers  of  the  American  Military  Intelli- 
gence, although  many  of  these  men  themselves  were  con- 
vinced that  empty  stomachs  were  breeding  Bolshevism  with 
every  passing  day.  One  correspondent,  who  had  been  so  bit- 
terly anti- German  from  the  very  beginning  of  the  war  that 

^Les  Allies  et  les  6tats-Unis  envisagent  le  ravitaillement  de  I'AUemagne^ 
pendant  I'armistice,  dans  la  mesure  reconnue  necessaire. 

251 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

he  had  had  to  leave  Germany  long  before  America  entered 
the  struggle,  was  denounced  in  a  report  to  the  Military  In- 
telligence at  Washington  on  March  3d  as  "having  shown 
pro-German  leanings  throughout  the  war."  An  American 
correspondent  with  a  long  and  honorable  record,  who  had 
taken  a  prominent  part  in  carrying  on  American  propaganda 
abroad  and  upon  whose  reports  high  diplomatic  officials  of 
three  of  the  Allied  countries  had  relied,  was  astounded  to 
learn  that  the  Military  Intelligence,  in  a  report  of  January 
II,  1919,  had  denounced  him  as  "having  gone  to  Berlin  to 
create  sentiment  in  the  United  States  favorable  to  furnish- 
ing Germany  food-supply." 

There  was  less  of  this  sort  of  thing  in  England,  and  many 
prominent  Englishmen  were  early  awake  to  the  dangers 
that  lay  in  starvation.  Early  in  January  Lord  Henry  Ben- 
tinck,  writing  to  the  London  Daily  News,  declared  there  was 
no  sense  in  maintaining  the  blockade.  It  was  hindering  the 
development  of  industry  and  the  employment  of  the  idle  in 
England,  and  in  Middle  Europe  it  was  killing  children  and 
keeping  millions  hungry  and  unemployed.  The  blockade, 
said  Lord  Henry,  was  the  Bolshevists'  best  friend  and  had 
no  purpose  except  to  enable  England  to  cut  off  her  own  nose 
in  order  to  spite  Germany's  face.  Many  other  leaders  of 
thought  in  England  took  the  same  stand. 

Despite  the  (at  least  inferential)  promise  in  the  armistice 
that  Germany  should  be  revictualled,  not  a  step  had  been 
taken  toward  doing  this  when,  on  January  13th,  more  than 
two  months  after  the  signing  of  the  armistice.  President  Wil- 
son sent  a  message  to  administration  leaders  in  Congress 
urging  the  appropriation  of  one  hundred  million  dollars  for 
food-relief  in  Europe. 

"Food-relief  is  now  the  key  to  the  whole  European  situa- 
tion and  to  the  solution  of  peace,"  said  the  President.  "Bol- 
shevism is  steadily  advancing  westward;  is  poisoning  Ger- 
many. It  cannot  be  stopped  by  force,  but  it  can  be  stopped 
by  food,  and  all  the  leaders  with  whom  I  am  in  conference 
agree  that  concerted  action  in  this  matter  is  of  immediate 
and  vital  importance." 

So  far,  so  good.  This  was  a  step  in  the  right  direction.  But 

252 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

it  had  to  be  qualified.  This  was  done  in  the  next  paragraph : 

**The  money  will  not  be  spent  for  food  for  Germany  it- 
self, because  Germany  can  buy  its  food,  but  it  will  be  spent 
for  financing  the  movement  of  food  to  our  real  friends  in 
Poland  and  to  the  people  of  the  liberated  units  of  the  Aus- 
tro-Hungarian  Empire  and  to  our  associates  in  the  Bal- 
kans." 

Former  Ambassador  Henry  White,  a  member  of  the 
American  peace  delegation,  supported  the  President's  ap- 
peal with  a  message  stating  that  "the  startling  westward  ad- 
vance of  Bolshevism  now  dominates  the  entire  European 
situation.  *  *  *  The  only  effective  barrier  against  it  is  food- 
relief." 

The  House  adopted  the  President's  recommendation  with- 
out question,  but  the  Senate  insisted  on  adding  a  stipula- 
tion that  no  part  of  the  money  should  be  spent  for  food  for 
Germany  and  no  food  bought  with  these  funds  should  be 
permitted  to  reach  that  country. 

Just  how  an  ulcer  in  Germany  was  to  be  cured  by  poultic- 
ing similar  ulcers  in  other  countries  is  doubtless  a  states- 
men's secret.  It  is  not  apparent  to  non-official  minds.  Ger- 
many, despite  her  poverty  and  the  depreciation  of  her  cur- 
rency, might  have  been  able  to  bliy  food,  but  she  was  not 
permitted  to  buy  any  food.  At  least  one  of  "the  liberated 
units  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  Empire"  was  in  equally  bad 
case.  Count  Michael  Karolyi,  acidressing  the  People's  As- 
sembly at  Budapest,  declared  that  the  Allies  were  not  carry- 
ing out  their  part  of  the  armistice  agreement  in  the  matter 
of  food-supplies  for  Hungary,  and  that  it  was  impossible  to 
maintain  order  in  such  conditions.  Whether  the  armistice 
actually  promised  to  supply  food  is  a  matter  of  interpreta- 
tion; that  no  food  had  been  supplied  is,  however,  a  matter 
of  history. 

On  January  1 7th  a  supplementary  agreement  was  entered 
into  between  the  Allies  and  Germany,  in  which  the  former 
undertook  to  permit  the  importation  of  two  hundred  thou- 
sand tons  of  breadstuflfs  and  seventy  thousand  tons  of  pork 
products  to  Germany  "in  such  manner  and  from  such  places 
as  the  Associated  Governments  may  prescribe."  This  was  but 

253 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

a  part  of  the  actual  requirements  of  Germany  for  a  single 
mpnth,  but  if  it  had  been  supplied  quickly  it  would  have 
gone  far  toward  simplifying  the  tremendous  problem  of 
maintaining  a  semblance  of  order  in  Germany. 

Weeks  passed,  however,  and  no  food  came.  With  the  Bol- 
shevik conflagration  spreading  from  city  to  city,  long  de- 
bates were  carried  on  as  to  what  fire  department  should  be 
summoned  and  what  kind  of  uniforms  the  firemen  should 
wear.  More  districts  of  East  Prussia  and  Posen,  the  chief 
granaries  of  Northeastern  Germany  and  Berlin,  were  lost 
to  Germany.  There  was  a  serious  shortage  of  coal  and  gas 
in  the  cities. 

Strikes  became  epidemic.  Work  was  no  longer  occasion- 
ally interrupted  by  strikes;  strikes  were  occasionally  inter- 
rupted by  work.  Berlin's  electric  power-plant  workers 
threw  the  city  into  darkness,  and  the  example  was  followed 
in  other  cities.  The  proletarians  were  apparently  quite  as 
ready  to  exploit  their  brother  proletarians  as  the  capitalists 
were.  Coal  miners  either  quit  work  entirely  or  insisted  on  a 
seven-hour  day  which  included  an  hour  and  a  half  spent 
in  coming  to  and  going  from  work,  making  the  net  result  a 
day  of  five  and  a  half  hours.  Street-car  employees  struck,  and 
for  days  the  undernourished  people  of  the  capital  walked 
miles  to  work-  and  home  again.  The  shops  were  closed  by 
strikes,  stenographers  and  typewriters  walked  out;  drivers 
of  garbage  wagons,  already  receiving  the  pay  of  cabinet 
ministers,  demanded  more  pay  and  got  it.  From  every  cor- 
ner of  the  country  came  reports  of  labor  troubles,  often  ac- 
companied by  rioting  and  sabotage. 

In  most  of  these  strikes  the  hand  of  Spartacus  and  the  In- 
dependent Socialists  could  be  discerned.  The  working  peo- 
ple, hungry  and  miserable,  waiting  vainly  week  after  week 
for  the  food  which  they  believed  had  been  promised  them, 
were  tinder  for  the  Bolshevist  spark.  The  government's  un- 
wise method  of  handling  the  problem  of  the  unemployed 
further  greatly  aggravated  the  situation.  The  support  grant- 
ed the  unemployed  often  or  perhaps  generally  was  greater 
than  their  pay  in  their  usual  callings.  A  man  with  a  wife 
and  four  children  in   Greater  Berlin   received  more  than 

254 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

fourteen  marks  daily.  The  average  wage  for  unskilled  labor 
was  from  ten  to  twelve  marks,  and  the  result  was  that  none 
but  the  most  conscientious  endeavored  to  secure  employ- 
ment, and  thousands  deliberately  left  their  work  and  lived 
on  their  unemployment-allowances.  Two  hundred  thousand 
residents  of  Greater  Berlin  were  receiving  daily  support 
from  the  city  by  the  middle  of  February,  and  this  propor- 
tion was  generally  maintained  throughout  the  country.  This 
vast  army  of  unemployed  further  crippled  industry,  im- 
posed serious  financial  burdens  upon  an  already  bankrupt 
state,  and — inevitable  result  of  idleness — made  the  task  of 
Bolshevist  agitators  easier. 

The  Spartacans,  who  since  their  defeat  in  Berlin  in  Jan- 
uary had  been  more  carefully  watched,  began  to  assemble 
their  forces  elsewhere.  Essen  became  their  chief  strong- 
hold, and  the  whole  Ruhr  district,  including  Diisseldorf, 
was  virtually  in  their  hands.  Other  Spartacan  centers 
were  Leipsic,  Halle,  Merseburg,  Munich,  Nuremberg,  Mann- 
heim and  Augsburg.  All  jthis  time,  however,  they  were  also 
feverishly  active  in  Berlin.  A  general  strike,  called  by  the 
Spartacans  and  Independent  Socialists  for  the  middle  of 
February,  collapsed.  A  secret  sitting  of  the  leaders  of  the 
Red  Soldiers'  League  on  Febuary  15th  was  surprised  by  the 
authorities,  who  arrested  all  men  present  and  thus  nipped 
in  the  bud  for  a  time  further  preparations  for  a  new  revolt. 
The  Independents  made  common  cause  with  the  Spartacans 
in  demanding  the  liberation  of  all  "political  prisoners," 
chief  among  whom  were  Ledebour,  who  helped  organize 
the  revolt  of  January  5th,  and  Radek,  "this  international 
criminal,"  as  Deputy  Heinrich  Heine  term^ed  him  in  a  speech 
before  the  Prussian  Diet. 

The  respite,  however,  was  short.  On  Monday,  March  3d, 
the  Workmen's  Council  now  completely  in  the  hands  of  the 
enemies  of  the  government  called  a  general  strike.  Street 
cars,  omnibuses  and  interurban  trains  stopped  running, 
all  business  was  suspended  and  nightfall  plunged  the  city 
into  complete  darkness.  This  was  the  signal  for  the  first  dis- 
turbances. There  was  considerable  rioting,  with  some  loss  of 
blood,  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  city  beyond  Alexander 

255 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

Platz,  a  section  always  noted  as  the  home  of  a  large  criminal 
element.  Spartacans,  reinforced  by  the  hooligan  and  crim- 
inal element — or  let  it  rather  be  said  that  these  consisted 
and  had  from  the  beginning  consisted  mainly  of  hooligans 
and  criminals — began  a  systematic  attack  on  police-stations 
everywhere.  Thirty-three  stations  were  occupied  by  them 
during  the  night,  the  police  officials  were  disarmed  and 
their  weapons  distributed  to  the  rabble  that  was  constantly 
swelling  the  ranks  of  the  rebels. 

The  first  serious  clash  of  this  second  Bolshevik  week  came 
at  the  Police-Presidency,  which  the  Spartacans,  as  in  Jan- 
uary, planned  to  make  their  headquarters.  This  time,  how- 
ever, the  building  was  occupied  by  loyal  government  troops, 
and  the  incipient  attack  dissolved  before  a  few  volleys.  The 
night  was  marked  by  extensive  looting.  Jewelers  in  the  east- 
ern part  of  the  city  suffered  losses  aggregating  many  mil- 
lion marks. 

The  situation  grew  rapidly  worse  on  Tuesday.  Nearly 
thirty  thousand  government  troops  marched  into  the  city, 
bringing  light  and  heavy  artillery,  mine-throwers  and  ma- 
chine-guns. Berlin  was  converted  into  an  armed  camp.  The 
revolt  would  have  been  quickly  put  down  but  for  an  occur- 
rence made  possible  by  the  government's  weakness  at  Christ- 
mas time.  The  People's  Marine  Division,  looters  of  the 
Royal  Palace,  parasites  on  the  city's  payroll  and  "guardians 
of  the  public  safety,"  threw  off  the  mask  and  went  over  to 
the  Spartacans  in  a  body.  A  considerable  number  of  the  Re- 
publican Soldier  Guards,  Eichhorn's  legacy  to  Berlin,  fol- 
lowed suit.  The  government's  failure  to  disarm  these  forces 
six  weeks  earlier,  when  their  Bolshevist  sentiments  had  be- 
come manifest,  now  had  to  be  paid  for  in  blood.  The  defec- 
tion was  serious  not  only  because  it  added  to  the  numbers  of 
the  Bolsheviki,  but  also  because  it  greatly  increased  the  sup- 
plies of  weapons  and  munitions  at  the  disposal  of  the  enemies 
of  the  government. 

The  defection,  too,  came  as  a  surprise  and  at  a  most  un- 
fortunate time.  The  Marine  Division,  upon  which  the  com- 
manders of  the  government  troops  had  naively  depended, 
had  been  ordered  to  clear  the  Alexander  Platz,  a  large  open 

256 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

place  in  front  of  the  Police-Presidency.  They  began  osten- 
sibly to  carry  out  the  order,  but  had  hardly  reached  the 
place  when  they  declared  that  they  had  been  fired  on  by 
government  troops.  Thereupon  they  attacked  the  Police- 
Presidency,  but  were  beaten  off  with  some  twenty-five 
killed.  They  withdrew  to  the  Marine  House  at  the  Janno- 
witz  Bridge,  which  they  had  been  occupying  since  their  ex- 
pulsion from  the  Royal  Stables,  and  set  about  fortifying  it. 

The  following  day — Ash  Wednesday — was  marked  by 
irregular  but  severe  fighting  in  various  parts  of  the  city. 
The  government  proclaimed  a  state  of  siege.  More  loyal 
troops  were  brought  to  the  city.  From  captured  Spartacans 
it  was  learned  that  a  massed  attack  on  the  Police-Presidency 
was  to  be  made  at  eleven  o'clock  at  night  by  the  People's 
Marine  Division,  the  Red  Soldiers'  League  and  civilian 
Spartacans.  The  assault  did  not  begin  until  nearly  three 
o'clock  Thursday  morning.  Despite  the  governments'  troops 
disposition,  the  Spartacans  succeeded,  after  heavy  bombard- 
ment of  the  building,  in  occupying  two  courts  in  the  southern 
wing.  The  battle  was  carried  on  throughout  the  night  and 
until  Thursday  afternoon.  Few  cities  have  witnessed  such 
civil  warfare.  Every  instrument  known  to  military  science 
was  used,  with  the  exception  of  poison-gases.  Late  on  Thurs- 
day afternoon  the  attackers  were  dispersed  and  the  Spar- 
tacans in  the  Police-Presidency,  about  fifty  men,  were  ar- 
rested. 

The  Marine  House  was  also  captured  on  the  same  after- 
noon. The  defenders  hoisted  the  white  flag  after  a  few  mines 
had  been  thrown  into  the  building,  but  had  disappeared 
when  the  government  troops  occupied  it.  What  their  de- 
fection to  the  Spartacans  had  meant  was  illustrated  by  the 
finding  in  the  building  of  several  thousand  rifles,  more  than 
a  hundred  machine  guns,  two  armored  automobiles  and 
great  quantities  of  ammunition  and  provisions.  The  Re- 
publican Soldiers'  Guard,  barricaded  in  the  Royal  Stables, 
surrendered  after  a  few  shells  had  been  fired. 

The  fighting  so  completely  took  on  the  aspects  of  a  real 
war  that  the  wildest  atrocity  stories  began  to  circulate.  They 
were,  like  all  atrocity  stories,  greatly  exaggerated,  but  it 

257 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

was  established  that  Spartacans  had  killed  unarmed  prison- 
ers, including  several  policemen,  had  stopped  and  wrecked 
ambulances  and  killed  wounded,  and  had  systematically 
fired  on  first-aid  stations  and  hospitals.  Noske  rose  to  the 
occasion  like  a  mere  bourgeois  minister.  He  decreed : 

"All  persons  found  with  arms  in  their  hands,  resisting 
government  troops,  will  be  summarily  executed." 

Despite  this  decree,  the  Spartacans,  who  had  erected 
street-barricades  in  that  part  of  Berlin  eastward  and  north- 
ward from  Alexander  Platz,  put  up  a  show  of  resistance  for 
some  days.  They  were,  however,  seriously  shaken  by  their 
heavy  losses  and  weakened  by  the  wholesale  defections  of 
supporters  who  had  joined  them  chiefly  for  the  sake  of  loot- 
ing and  who  had  a  wholesale  respect  for  Noske  as  a  man  of 
his  word.  They  had  good  reason  to  entertain  this  respect  for 
the  grim  man  in  charge  of  the  government's  military  meas- 
ures. The  government  never  made  public  the  number  of 
summary  executions  under  Noske's  decree,  but  there  is  little 
doubt  that  these  went  well  above  one  hundred.  A  group  of 
members  of  the  mutinous  People's  Marine  Division  had 
the  splendid  eff"rontery  to  call  at  the  office  of  the  city  com- 
mandant to  demand  the  pay  due  them  as  protectors  of  the 
public  safety.  Government  troops  arrested  the  callers,  a 
part  of  whom  resisted  arrest.  Twenty-four  of  these  men, 
found  to  have  weapons  in  their  possession,  were  summarily 
executed. 

Die  Freiheit  and  Die  Republik  denounced  the  members 
of  the  government  as  murderers.  The  office  of  the  Spar- 
tacans' Die  rote  Fahne  had  been  occupied  by  government 
troops  on  the  day  of  the  outbreak  of  the  Bolshevik  uprising. 
The  bourgeois  and  Majority  Socialist  press  supported  the 
government  whole-heartedly,  and  the  law-abiding  citizens 
were  encouraged  by  their  new  rulers'  energy  and  by  the 
loyalty  and  bravery  of  the  government  troops.  There  was 
a  general  recognition  of  the  fact  that  matters  had  reached 
a  stage  where  a  minority,  in  part  deluded  and  in  part  crim- 
inal, could  not  longer  be  permitted  to  terrorize  the  country. 

The  uprising  collapsed  rapidly  after  the  Spartacans  had 
been  driven  from  their  main  strongholds.  They  maintained 

258 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

themselves  for  a  few  days  in  Lichtenberg,  a  suburb  of  Ber- 
lin, and — as  in  the  January  uprising — sniping  from  house- 
tops continued  for  a  week.  No  list  of  casualties  was  ever  is- 
sued, but  estimates  ran  as  high  as  one  thousand,  of  which 
probably  three-quarters  were  suffered  by  the  Spartacans. 
They  were  further  badly  weakened  by  the  loss  of  a  great  part 
of  their  weapons,  both  during  the  fighting  and  in  a  general 
clean-up  of  the  city  which  was  made  after  the  uprising  had 
been  definitely  put  down. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  efforts  of  the  German  Bosheviki, 
aided  by  the  left  wing  of  the  Independent  Socialists,  to  over- 
throw the  government  by  force  had  failed  wherever  the  at- 
tempt had  been  made.  Not  only  in  Berlin,  but  in  a  dozen 
other  cities  and  districts  as  well,  the  enemies  of  democracy 
had  been  decisively  defeated.  In  Munich  and  Brunswick 
alone  they  were  still  strong  and  defiant,  but  they  were  to 
be  defeated  even  there  later.  In  these  circumstances  it  might 
have  been  expected  that  they  would  not  again  be  able  to 
cause  serious  trouble  to  the  government.  But  a  new  aspect 
was  put  on  circumstances  by  an  occurrence  whose  inevitabil- 
ity had  long  been  recognized  by  close  observers. 

The  Independent  Social-Democratic  Party  went  over  to 
the  Spartacans  officially,  bag  and  baggage. 

In  theory,  to  be  sure,  it  did  nothing  of  the  kind.  It  main- 
tained its  own  organization,  "rejected  planless  violence," 
declared  its  adherence  to  *'the  fundamental  portion  of  the 
Erfurt  program,"  and  asserted  its  readiness  to  use  **all  polit- 
ical and  economic  means"  to  attain  its  aims,  "including  par- 
liaments," which  were  rejected  by  the  Spartacans.  Apart 
from  this,  however,  there  was  little  difference  in  theory  and 
none  in  practice  between  the  platforms  of  the  two  parties, 
for  the  Independents  declared  themselves  for  Soviet  gov- 
ernment and  for  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat,  and 
their  rejection  of  violent  methods  existed  only  on  paper. 

The  party  congress  convened  at  Berlin  on  March  2d  and 
lasted  four  days.  Haase  and  Dittmann,  the  former  cabinet 
members,  were  again  in  control,  and  it  could  not  be  observed 
in  their  attitude  that  there  had  been  a  time  when  they  risked 
a  loss  of  influence  in  the  party  by  standing  too  far  to  the 
right. 

259 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

The  "revolution-program"  adopted  by  the  party  declared 
that  the  revolutionary  soldiers  and  workingmen  of  Ger- 
many, who  had  seized  the  power  of  the  state  in  November, 
"have  not  fortified  their  power  nor  overcome  the  capitalis- 
tic class-domination."  It  continued: 

"The  leaders  of  the  Socialists  of  the  Right  (Majority) 
have  renewed  their  pact  with  the  bourgeois  classes  and  de- 
serted the  interests  of  the  proletariat.  They  are  carrying  on 
a  befogging  policy  with  the  words  'democracy'  and  'Social- 
ism.' 

"In  a  capitalistic  social  order  democratic  forms  are  a  de- 
ceit. So  long  as  economic  liberation  and  independence  do  not 
follow  upon  political  liberation  there  is  no  true  democracy. 
Socialization,  as  the  Socialists  of  the  Right  are  carrying  it 
out,  is  a  comedy." 

The  program  declared  a  new  proletarian  battling  organi- 
zation necessary,  and  continued : 

"The  proletarian  revolution  has  created  such  an  organi- 
zation in  the  Soviet  system.  This  unites  for  revolutionary 
activities  the  laboring  masses  in  the  industries.  It  gives  the 
proletariat  the  right  of  self-government  in  industries,  in 
municipalities  and  in  the  state.  It  carries  through  the  change 
of  the  capitalistic  economic  order  to  a  socialistic  order. 

"In  all  capitalistic  lands  the  Soviet  system  is  growing  out 
of  the  same  economic  conditions  and  becoming  the  bearer 
of  the  proletarian  world-revolution. 

"It  is  the  historic  mission  of  the  Independent  Social- 
Democratic  Party  to  become  the  standard  bearer  of  the 
class-conscious  proletariat  in  its  revolutionary  war  of  eman- 
cipation. 

"The  Independent  Social-Democratic  Party  places  it- 
self upon  the  foundation  of  the  Soviet  system.  It  supports 
the  Soviets  in  their  struggle  for  economic  and  political 
power. 

"It  strives  for  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat,  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  great  majority  of  the  people,  as  a  neces- 
sary condition  precedent  for  the  effectuation  of  Socialism. 

"In  order  to  attain  this  end  the  party  will  employ  all 
political  and  economic  means  of  battle,  including  parlia- 
ments." 

260 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

With  this  preface,  these  "immediate  demands"  of  the 
party  were  set  forth : 

"i.  Inclusion  of  the  Soviet  system  in  the  constitution: 
the  Soviets  to  have  a  deciding  voice  in  municipal,  state  and 
industrial  legislation. 

"2.  Complete  disbandment  of  the  old  army.  Immediate 
disbandment  of  the  mercenary  army  formed  from  volunteer 
corps.  Organization  of  a  national  guard  from  the  ranks  of 
the  class-conscious  proletariat.  Self-administration  of  the  na- 
tional guard  and  election  of  leaders  by  the  men.  Abolish- 
ment of  courts-martial. 

"3.  The  nationalization  of  capitalistic  undertakings  shall 
be  begun  immediately.  It  shall  be  carried  through  without 
delay  in  the  mining  industry  and  production  of  energy  (coal, 
water,  electricity),  iron  and  steel  production  as  well  as  other 
highly  developed  industries,  and  in  the  banking  and  insur- 
ance business.  Large  estates  and  forests  shall  immediately  be 
converted  into  the  property  of  society,  whose  task  it  shall 
be  to  raise  all  economic  undertakings  to  the  highest  point 
of  productivity  by  the  employment  of  all  technical  and  eco- 
nomic means,  as  well  as  to  further  comradeship.  Privately 
owned  real  estate  in  the  cities  shall  become  municipal  prop- 
erty, and  the  municipalities  shall  build  an  adequate  number 
of  dwellings  on  their  own  account. 

"4.  Election  of  officials  and  judges  by  the  people.  Im- 
mediate constitution  of  a  state  court  which  shall  determine 
the  responsibility  of  those  persons  guilty  of  bringing  on 
the  war  and  of  hindering  the  earlier  conclusion  of  peace. 

"5.  War  profits  shall  be  taxed  entirely  out  of  existence. 
A  portion  of  all  large  fortunes  shall  be  handed  over  to  the 
state.  Public  expenditures  shall  be  covered  by  a  graduated 
tax  on  incomes,  fortunes  and  inheritances.  The  war  loans 
shall  be  annulled,  but  necessitous  individuals,  associations 
serving  the  common  welfare,  institutions  and  municipalities 
shall  be  indemnified. 

"6.  Extension  of  social  legislation.  Protection  and  care 
of  mother  and  child.  A  care-free  existence  shall  be  assured 
to  war  widows  and  orphans  and  the  wounded.  Superfluous 

261 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

rooms  of  the  possessing  class  shall  be  placed  at  the  disposi- 
tion of  the  homeless.  Fundamental  reform  of  public-health 
systems. 

"7.  Separation  of  church  from  state  and  of  church  from 
school.  Uniform  public  schools  of  secular  character,  which 
shall  be  erected  on  socialistic-pedagogic  principles.  Every 
child  shall  have  a  right  to  an  education  corresponding  to 
his  capacities,  and  to  the  furnishing  of  means  toward  that 
end. 

"8.  A  public  monopoly  of  newspaper  advertisements  shall 
be  created  for  the  benefit  of  municipalities. 

"9.  Establishment  of  friendly  relations  with  all  nations. 
Immediate  resumption  of  diplomatic  relations  with  the  Rus- 
sian Soviet  Republic  and  Poland.  Reestablishment  of  the 
Workmen's  Internationale  on  the  basis  of  revolutionary  so- 
cial policy  in  the  spirit  of  the  international  conferences  of 
Zimmerwald  and  Kienthal." 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  difference  between  these  de- 
mands and  those  of  the  Bolsheviki  (Spartacans)  is  precise- 
ly the  difference  between  tweedledum  and  tweedledee — 
one  of  terminology.  Some  even  of  these  principles  were 
materially  extended  by  interpretation  three  weeks  later. 
On  March  24th  the  Independent  Socialists  in  the  new  Prus- 
sian Diet,  replying  to  a  query  from  the  Majority  Socialists 
as  to  their  willingness  to  participate  in  the  coming  Prussian 
Constituent  Assembly,  stated  conditions  which  contained  the 
following  elaboration  of  point  3  in  the  program  given 
above : 

"The  most  important  means  of  production  in  agriculture, 
industry,  trade  and  commerce  shall  be  nationalized  imme- 
diately ;  the  land  and  its  natural  resources  shall  be  declared 
to  be  the  property  of  the  whole  people  and  shall  be  placed 
under  the  control  of  society." 

The  answer,  by  the  way,  was  signed  by  Adolph  Hoff- 
mann, whose  acquaintance  we  have  already  made,  and  Kurt 
Rosenfeld,  the  millionaire  son-in-law  of  a  wealthy  leather 
dealer. 

The  essential  kinship  of  the  Independents  and  Spar- 
tacans will  be  more  clearly  apparent  from  a  comparison  of 

262 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

the  latters'  demands,  as  published  on  April  14th  in  Die  rote 
Fahne,  then  appearing  in  Leipsic.  They  follow : 

"Ruthless  elimination  of  all  Majority  Socialist  leaders 
and  of  such  Independents  as  have  betrayed  the  Soviet  sys- 
tem and  the  revolution  by  their  cooperation  with  Majority 
Socialists. 

"Unconditional  acceptance  of  the  demands  of  the  Spar- 
tacus  Party's  program.^ 

"Immediate  introduction  of  the  following  measures:  (a) 
Liberation  of  all  political  prisoners;  (b)  dissolution  of  all 
parliamentary  gatherings;  (c)  dissolution  of  all  counter- 
revolutionary troop  detachments,  disarming  of  the  bour- 
geoisie and  the  internment  of  all  officers;  (d)  arming  of 
the  proletariat  and  the  immediate  organization  of  revolu- 
tionary corps;  (e)  abolition  of  all  courts  and  the  erection 
of  revolutionary  tribunals,  together  with  the  trial  by  these 
tribunals  of  all  persons  involved  in  bringing  on  the  war,  of 
counter-revolutionaries  and  traitors;  (f)  elimination  of  all 
state  administrative  officials  and  boards  (mayors,  provin- 
cial councillors,  etc. ) ,  and  the  substitution  of  delegates  chosen 
by  the  people ;  (g)  adoption  of  a  law  providing  for  the  taking 
over  by  the  state  without  indemnification  of  all  larger  under- 
takings (mines,  etc.),  together  with  the  larger  landed 
estates,  and  the  immediate  taking  over  of  the  administration 
of  these  estates  by  workmen's  councils;  (h)  adoption  of  a 
law  annulling  war-loans  exceeding  twenty  thousand  marks ; 
(i)  suppression  of  the  whole  bourgeois  press,  including  par- 
ticularly the  Majority  Socialist  press." 

Some  of  the  members  of  the  former  right  wing  of  the 
Independent  Socialists  left  the  party  and  went  over  to  the 
Majority  Socialists  following  the  party  congress  of  the  first 
week  in  March.  They  included  the  venerable  Eduard  Bern- 
stein, who  declared  that  the  Independents  had  demonstrated 
that  they  "lacked  utterly  any  constructive  program."  The 
dictates  of  party  discipline,  however,  together  with  the  des- 
peration of  suffering,  were  too  much  for  the  great  mass  of 
those  who  had  at  first  rejected  Bolshevist  methods,  and  the 

^Vide  chapter  xi. 

263 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

German  Bolsheviki  received  material  reinforcements  at  a 
time  when  they  would  have  been  powerless  without  them. 

The  Spartacans  had  lost  their  armed  battle  against  the 
government,  but  they  had  won  a  more  important  bloodless 
conflict. 


264 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Red  or  White  Internationalism 
Which? 

A  LL  revolutions  have  their  second  phase,  and  this  phase 
/  \  ordinarily  presents  features  similar  in  kind  and  vary- 
X  .^^  ing  only  in  degree.  After  the  actual  overthrow  of  the 
old  government  a  short  period  of  excited  optimism  gives 
place  to  a  realization  of  the  fact  that  the  administration  of  a 
state  is  not  so  simple  as  it  has  appeared  to  the  opposition 
parties,  and  that  the  existing  order  of  things — the  result  of 
centuries  of  natural  development — cannot  be  altered  over 
night.  Under  the  sobering  influence  of  this  realization  ultra- 
radicalism  loses  ground,  the  revolutionary  government  ac- 
cepts the  aid  of  some  of  the  men  who  have  been  connected 
with  the  deposed  government,  and  the  administration  of 
affairs  proceeds  along  an  orderly  middle  course. 

But  other  revolutions,  as  has  been  stated,  have  had  a  dif- 
ferent inception,  and  none  have  depended  for  their  success- 
ful execution  and  subsequent  development  on  a  people  so 
sorely  tried,  so  weakened  physically  and  morally,  and — 
last  but  not  least — so  extensively  infected  with  the  virus  of 
internationalism.  In  so  far  as  revolutions  were  not  the  work 
of  a  group  of  selfish  aspirants  for  power,  they  were  brought 
about  by  patriotic  men  whose  first  and  last  thought  was  the 
welfare  of  their  own  country,  and  who  concerned  themselves 
not  at  all  about  the  universal  brotherhood  of  man  or  the  op- 
pressed peoples  of  other  lands  or  races.  The  German  revolu- 
tionists, however,  scoffed  at  patriotism  as  an  outworn  dog- 
ma. The  majority  of  their  adherents  came  from  the  poorest 
and  most  ignorant  stratum  of  the  people,  the  class  most  re- 

265 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

sponsive  to  the  agitation  of  leaders  who  promised  that 
division  of  property  contemplated  by  Communist  Socialism. 

The  Independent  Socialists  had  "made  the  revolution." 
They  claimed  the  right  to  determine  its  development.  The 
bourgeoisie,  itself  incapable  of  restoring  the  old  order  and, 
for  the  most  part,  not  desiring  to  do  so,  supported  the  par- 
ent Socialist  Party  as  the  lesser  of  two  evils.  The  Independ- 
ents found  themselves  without  the  power  to  determine  what 
course  "their  revolution"  should  take.  All  revolutionary  his- 
tory showed  that  this  course  would  not  be  that  desired  by  the 
Independent  leaders  and  promised  by  them  to  their  radi- 
cal followers.  The  occurrences  of  the  first  month  following 
the  revolution  again  demonstrated  what  might  be  called  the 
natural  law  of  revolutionary  development.  The  Majority 
Socialists  in  the  government  refused  to  let  themselves  be 
hurried  into  disastrous  socializing  experiments.  They  re- 
fused to  ban  intelligence  and  ability  merely  because  the  pos- 
sessors happened  not  to  be  Genossen.  They  even  believed 
(horribile  dictu!)  that  private  property -rights  should  not 
be  abolished  out  of  hand.  They  were  so  recreant  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  true  internationalism  that  they  resented  foreign 
aggressions  against  Germans  and  German  soil,  and  they 
actually  proposed  to  resist  such  aggressions  by  force. 

With  heretics  like  these  there  could  be  no  communion. 
They  could  not  even  be  permitted  to  hold  communion 
among  themselves  if  it  could  be  prevented,  and  the  result 
was,  as  we  have  seen,  the  efforts  of  the  Independents  and 
Spartacans  to  wreck  the  tabernacle. 

To  recount  the  developments  of  the  period  from  the  crush- 
ing of  the  March  uprising  to  the  signing  of  the  Peace  of 
Versailles  would  be  but  to  repeat,  with  different  settings, 
the  story  of  the  first  four  months  of  Republican  Germany. 
This  period,  too,  was  filled  with  Independent  Socialist  and 
Spartacan  intrigues  and  armed  opposition  to  the  govern- 
ment, culminating  in  the  brief  but  bloody  reign  of  the  Com- 
munists in  Munich  in  April.  Strikes  continued  to  paralyze 
industry.  No  food  supplies  of  any  importance  were  received. 
The  National  Assembly  at  Weimar  continued  to  demon- 
strate the  philosophic  tendencies,   academic  learning   and 

266 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

'political  immaturity  of  the  German  people.  Distinct  left 
wings  came  into  being  in  both  the  Majority  Socialist  and 
Democratic  parties.  Particularism,  the  historic  curse  of  the 
country,  again  raised  its  head. 

Red  internationalism  in  Germany  received  a  marked  im- 
petus from  the  events  in  Hungary  at  the  end  of  March, 
when  Count  Michael  Karolyi  handed  the  reins  of  govern- 
ment over  to  the  Bolshevist  leader  Bela  Kun.  An  effort  has 
been  made  to  represent  this  as  a  bit  of  theatricals  staged  by 
Karolyi  with  the  support  and  encouragement  of  Berlin. 
Such  an  explanation  is  symptomatic  of  the  blindness  of  those 
who  will  not  see  the  significance  of  this  development.  To  as- 
sert that  the  German  Government,  itself  engaged  in  a  life- 
and-death  struggle  with  Bolshevism  at  home  and  threat- 
ened with  an  irruption  of  the  Bolshevist  forces  of  Russia, 
would  deliberately  create  a  new  source  of  infection  in  a  con- 
tiguous land  requires  either  much  mental  hardihood  or  a 
deep  ignorance  of  existing  conditions.  The  author  is  able 
to  state  from  first-hand  knowledge  that  the  German  Gov- 
ernment was  completely  surprised  by  the  news  from  Buda- 
pest, and  that  it  had  no  part,  direct  or  indirect,  in  bringing 
about  Karolyi's  resignation  or  the  accession  to  power  of  the 
Hungarian  Bolsheviki. 

The  developments  in  Hungary  were  made  inevitable  by 
the  unwisdom  with  which  this  "liberated  unit  of  the  Aus- 
tro- Hungarian  Empire"  was  treated.  When  the  November 
armistice  was  concluded,  there  was  a  "gentlemen's  agree- 
ment" or  understanding  that  the  demarcation  line  estab- 
lished by  the  armistice  should  be  policed  by  French,  Eng- 
lish or  American  troops.  It  was  not  observed.  Jugo-Slavs, 
Serbians  and  Roumanians  were  permitted  not  only  to  guard 
this  line,  but  to  advance  well  beyond  it.  The  enemy  occu- 
pation of  the  country  extended  to  nearly  all  portions  of  Hun- 
gary upon  which  the  central  part,  including  Budapest,  de- 
pended for  coal,  metals,  wood,  meats  and  even  salt.  The 
Czechs  took  possession  of  Pressburg,  rechristened  it  Wilson 
City,  and  advanced  along  the  Danube  to  within  twenty  miles 
of  Budapest.  Distress  became  acute. 

Then,  on  March  19th,  the  French  Colonel  Vix  sent  a  note 

267 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

to  Karolyi  establishing  a  new  demarcation  line  far  inside  the 
one  established  in  November  and  at  places  even  inside  the 
lines  held  by  Allied  troops.  Karolyi's  position  was  already 
insecure.  He  had  been  welcomed  when  he  assumed  office  as 
the  restorer  of  nationalism  and  peace.  The  support  accorded 
him  had  been  largely  due  to  his  record  as  an  opponent  of 
Austria  and  a  friend  of  the  Entente.  He  had  been  under 
surveillance  almost  throughout  the  war  because  of  his 
known  pro-Ally  sentiments,  and  only  his  prominence  saved 
him  from  arrest.  Now,  when  his  supposed  influence  with  the 
Allies  was  discovered  to  be  non-existent,  his  only  remain- 
ing support  was  shattered  and  he  went.  Hungary,  infected 
with  Bolshevism  by  Russian  propagandists  and  returned 
prisoners  of  war,  went  over  to  the  camp  of  Lenine. 

Another  factor  contributed  greatly  to  the  growth  of  the 
radical  Independent  Socialist  and  Bolshevist  movement  in 
Germany.  This  was  the  obvious  dilemma  of  the  Allies  in 
the  case  of  Russia,  their  undeniable  helplessness  and  lack  of 
counsel  in  the  face  of  applied  Bolshevism.  Thousands  of 
Germans  came  to  believe  that  Bolshevism  was  a  haven  of 
refuge.  Nor  was  this  sentiment  by  any  means  confined  to 
the  proletariat.  A  Berlin  millionaire  said  to  the  writer  in 
March : 

'Tf  it  comes  to  a  question  of  choosing  between  Bolshe- 
vism and  Allied  slavery,  I  shall  become  a  Bolshevik  without 
hesitation.  I  would  rather  see  Germany  in  the  possession 
of  Bolshevist  Germans  than  of  any  bourgeois  government 
wearing  chains  imposed  by  our  enemies.  The  Allies  dare 
not  intervene  in  Russia,  and  I  don't  believe  they  would  be 
any  less  helpless  before  a  Bolshevist  Germany." 

Scores  of  well-to-do  Germans  expressed  themselves  in 
the  same  strain  to  the  author,  and  thousands  from  the  lower 
classes,  free  from  the  restraint  which  the  possession  of 
worldly  goods  imposes,  put  into  execution  the  threat  of 
their  wealthier  countrymen. 

With  the  conclusion  of  the  peace  of  Versailles  we  leave 
Germany.  The  second  phase  of  the  revolution  is  not  yet 
ended.  Bolshevism,  crushed  in  one  place,  raises  its  head  in 
another.   Industry  is  prostrate.  Currency  is  so  depreciated 

268 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

that  importation  is  seriously  hampered.  The  event  is  on 
the  knees  of  the  gods. 

But  while  the  historian  can  thus  arbitrarily  dismiss  Ger- 
many and  the  conditions  created  by  the  great  war,  the  world 
cannot.  From  a  material  economic  viewpoint  alone,  the  co- 
lossal destruction  of  wealth  and  means  of  transportation, 
and  the  slaughter  of  millions  of  the  able-bodied  men  of  all 
nations  involved  are  factors  which  will  make  themselves 
felt  for  many  years.  These  obstacles  to  development  and 
progress  will,  however,  eventually  be  overcome.  They  are 
the  least  of  the  problems  facing  the  world  today  as  the  re- 
sult of  the  war  and  — this  must  be  said  now  and  it  will  even- 
tually be  realized  generally — as  a  result  of  the  Peace  of  Ver- 
sailles. The  men  responsible  for  this  peace  declare  that  it  is 
the  best  that  could  be  made.  Until  the  proceedings  of  the 
peace  conference  shall  have  been  made  public,  together 
with  all  material  submitted  to  it,  including  eventual  pre- 
war bargains  and  treaty  commitments,  this  declaration  can- 
not be  controverted.  One  must  assume  at  least  that  the  mak- 
ers of  the  peace  believed  it  to  be  the  best  possible. 

The  bona  fides  of  the  peace  delegates,  however,  while  it 
protects  them  from  adverse  criticism,  is  a  personal  matter 
and  irrelevant  in  any  consideration  of  the  treaty  and  its 
probable  results.  Nor  is  the  question  whether  any  better 
treaty  was  possible,  of  any  relevancy.  What  alone  vitally 
concerns  the  world  is  not  the  sentiments  of  a  few  men,  but 
what  may  be  expected  from  their  work.  As  to  this,  many 
thoughtful  observers  in  all  countries  have  already  come 
to  realize  what  will  eventually  be  realized  by  millions. 

The  Treaty  of  Versailles  has  Balkanized  Europe;  it  has 
to  a  large  degree  reestablished  the  multiplicity  of  territo- 
rial sovereignties  that  handicapped  progress  and  caused  con- 
tinuous strife  more  than  a  century  ago ;  it  has  revived  smoul- 
dering race-antagonisms  which  were  in  a  fair  way  to  be 
extinguished;  it  has  created  a  dozen  new  irredentas,  new 
breeding-places  of  war;  it  has  liberated  thousands  from 
foreign  domination  but  placed  tens  of  thousands  under  the 
yoke  of  other  foreign  domination,  and  has  tried  to  insure  the 
permanency  not  only  of  their  subjection,  but  of  that  of  other 

269 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

subject  races  which  have  for  centuries  been  struggling  for 
independence.  Preaching  general  disarmament,  it  has 
strengthened  the  armed  might  of  one  power  by  disarming 
its  neighbors,  and  has  given  to  it  the  military  and  political 
domination  of  Europe.  To  another  power  it  has  given  con- 
trol of  the  high  seas.  It  has  refused  to  let  the  laboring 
masses  of  the  world — the  men  who  fought  and  suffered — be 
represented  at  the  conference  by  delegates  of  their  own 
choosing. 

Such  a  treaty  could  not  bring  real  peace  to  the  world  even 
if  the  conditions  were  less  critical  and  complex.  As  they  are, 
it  will  hasten  and  aggravate  what  the  world  will  soon  dis- 
cover to  be  the  most  serious,  vital  and  revolutionary  con- 
sequence of  the  war.  What  this  will  be  has  already  been  dimly 
foreshadowed  by  the  almost  unanimous  condemnation  of 
the  treaty  by  the  Socialists  of  France,  Italy,  England  and 
nearly  all  neutral  countries.  ^ 

Virtually  all  Americans  and  even  most  Europeans  have 
little  conception  of  the  extent  to  which  the  war  and  its  two 
great  revolutions  have  awakened  the  class-consciousness  of 
the  proletariat  of  all  lands.  Everywhere  the  laboring  masses 
have  been  the  chief  sufferers.  Everywhere  composing  an 
overwhelming  majority  of  the  people,  they  have  nowhere 
been  able  to  decide  their  own  destinies  or  have  an  effective 
voice  in  government  except  through  revolution.  Every- 
where they  have  been  the  pawns  sacrificed  on  the  bloody 
chessboard  of  war  to  protect  kings  and  queens,  bishops  and 
castles.  They  are  beginning  to  ask  why  this  must  be  and  why 
they  were  not  permitted  to  have  a  voice  in  the  conference 
at  Versailles,  and  this  question  will  become  an  embarrass- 
ing one  for  all  who  try  to  find  the  answer  in  the  textbooks 
of  governments  as  governments  today  exist. 

Deplore  it  though  one  may,  Internationalism  is  on  the 
march.  Nor  is  it  confined  even  today  to  people  who  work 
with  their  hands.  Its  advocates  are  to  be  found — have  been 
found  by  hundreds  in  America  itself — in  the  ranks  of  the 
thinkers  of  every  country.  The  press  in  America  has  for 
months  been  pointing  out  the  prevalence  of  internationalist 
sentiments   among  school-teachers   and    university   profes- 

270 


AND  THE  KAISER  ABDICATES 

sors,  and  it  has  been  gravely  puzzled  by  this  state  of  af- 
fairs. It  considers  it  a  paradox  that  Internationalism  exists 
among  presumably  well  educated  persons. 

One  might  as  well  call  it  a  paradox  for  a  victim  of  small- 
pox to  have  an  eruption.  It  is  no  paradox.  It  is  a  symptom. 
And,  incorrectly  diagnosed  and  ignorantly  treated,  it  is  a 
dangerous  disease. 

The  physician  diagnoses  a  disease  at  the  outset,  if  he  can, 
and  aborts  it  if  possible.  If  it  be  contagious,  he  employs  pre- 
cautions against  its  spread.  No  part  of  these  precautions 
consists  in  ordering  other  people  at  the  point  of  a  rifle  not  to 
catch  the  disease. 

The  greatest  task  of  the  governments  of  the  world  today 
is  to  diagnose  correctly  and  treat  intelligently.  The  proleta- 
rians have  learned  their  strength.  A  new  era  is  dawning. 

That  era  will  be  marked  by  an  internationalism  whose 
character  and  extent  will  depend  upon  the  wisdom  with 
which  the  masters  of  the  world  administer  the  affairs  of 
their  peoples.  And  the  question  which  every  man  should 
ask  himself  today  is : 

Shall  this  Internationalism  be  Red  or  White? 

FINIS 


271 


Printed  at  the  Earl  Trumbull  Williams  Memorial 
by  Yale  University  Press 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

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